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Left inset: U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols (U.S. District Court photo). Main: MyPillow CEO and founder Mike Lindell speaks to reporters at his MyPillow factory in the Minneapolis suburb of Shakopee, Minn., on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, as he launches his campaign for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in 2026 (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski).
A judge appointed by former President Trump in Washington, D.C., has sided with Smartmatic in their request to hold MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in civil contempt, compelling him to pay penalties for presenting “baseless” claims about the 2020 election in a federal court. This decision is reflected in the court docket.
While the details of U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols’ ruling on Tuesday remain confidential, the docket indicates that Smartmatic’s motion for contempt was approved, as detailed by Law&Crime.
Since early 2025, Lindell has faced $56,369 in fines. By March of that year, Smartmatic had grown impatient and filed a motion to hold Lindell in civil contempt, arguing that he had neither paid the sanctions nor engaged in discussions about payment terms.
When questioned by the judge about his non-compliance, Lindell cited an “inability to pay,” submitting sealed documents for the court and Smartmatic to evaluate. He later attributed the issue to changes in his legal team and claimed he had not received the court order.
In response, Smartmatic argued in January that Lindell had the financial means to settle the fine but deliberately chose not to, showing “disregard for this Court’s orders” rather than experiencing a true financial crisis.
Smartmatic countered in January by saying that Lindell had the funds to pay but he simply chose not to out of “disregard for this Court’s orders, rather than genuine financial hardship.”
As evidence that “further contempt sanctions” were warranted, the voting machine company — whose technology was used only in Los Angeles County in 2020, a county Joe Biden easily won in that year’s presidential election — pointed to the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by Lindell’s legal defense fund and his Minnesota gubernatorial campaign.
Rather than paying Smartmatic, a recent supplemental filing said, Lindell spent $187,037.87 to buy copies of his book “What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO” from MyPillow Inc. and give them away on the campaign trail.
Smartmatic argued the spending numbers showed that Lindell could afford the sanctions but decided to “pay his own company and by extension, himself,” instead.
As such, the company argued that “[o]nly the threat of contempt will move him to comply[.]”
The contempt motion had asked Nichols to at least issue a “daily penalty” until Lindell paid in full for violating the “clear and unambiguous terms” of the sanctions order, but left open the door for another “appropriate remedy to coerce his compliance.” Once the order is unsealed it will become clear just how far Nichols went.