The MyPillow guy is being sued into the stratosphere for pushing Trump's voter fraud nonsense

The Washington Post/The Washington Post/Getty Images
Impact
Updated: 
Originally Published: 

Sedition enthusiast and martial law dabbler Mike Lindell has not been having a great month. First, his much touted "docu-movie" Absolute Proof, which he claimed would finally, irrevocably prove former President Donald Trump's (endlessly debunked) election fraud claims, landed with the force of a bag of mini marshmallows. And now both Lindell and his MyPillow empire risk total financial ruin, thanks to a just-filed lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, the company at the heart of Lindell's — and Trump's — entirely fictional voter fraud fantasy.

The suit, filed Monday morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, makes clear that Dominion sees Lindell's allegations of voter fraud as part of the MyPillow CEO's business scheme to boost sales by marketing to the former president's eager base of conspiracy-addled MAGA cultists.

"After hitting the jackpot with Donald Trump's endorsement for MyPillow and after a million-dollar bet on Fox News ads had paid out handsome returns, Michael Lindell exploited another chance to boost sales: marketing MyPillow to people who would tune in and attend rallies to hear Lindell tell the 'Big Lie' that Dominion had stolen the 2020 election," the voting machine company alleged.

Speaking with The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Lindell continued to project confidence, telling the paper he was "very very happy" about being sued.

"I have all the evidence on them,” he explained, repeating the vaguely meaningless threat upon which he based his Absolute Proof flop. “Now this will get disclosed faster, all the machine fraud and the attack on our country."

Dominon's suit — which asks for more than $1.3 billion in damages — pulls few punches, claiming Lindell "is well aware of the independent audits and paper ballot recounts conclusively disproving the 'Big Lie' [of a stolen election]."

"Lindell — a talented salesman and former professional card counter — sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows," it notes.

With an estimated personal net worth of around $300 million, Lindell would likely be financially ruined should Dominion win its suit against him. Indeed, this is far from the first time Lindell and MyPillow have faced legal jeopardy, having offered a number of financial settlements to end various lawsuits since the company was founded in the early 2000s. But the fallout from Dominion's lawsuit — in addition to possibly destroying the company — could extend well beyond Lindell and into the realm of actually, and ironically, influencing an election.

That's because earlier this month, former Minnesota state Rep. Doug Wardlow announced plans for a second run against current Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison in 2022. But Wardlow, an alleged homophobic bully, will stay plenty busy between then and now: He currently serves as general counsel for, you guessed it, MyPillow.