MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems with accusations he pushed election conspiracies to inflate pillow sales.
Lindell has been one of the most vocal supporters of former President Donald Trump’s narrative that the Nov. 3 presidential election was stolen by companies like Dominion. The voting hardware and software company is now seeking $1.3 billion in damages, The New York Times reports.
The lawsuit noted that Lindell has previously said in interviews with several conservative media outlets that his election claims increased pillow sales by as much as 40% even as major retailers dropped his product.
“Every time I got attacked, my business would go up, anywhere from 10 to 30 percent,” Lindell said on the Right Side in January, as reported by The Washington Post. “Here’s my theory: Everybody on the right buys more, they buy more to support the cause.”
Lindell made increasingly high-profile appearances to push his election claims, even meeting with Trump and producing a two-hour documentary on election conspiracy theories that racked up thousands of views before YouTube removed it.
Lindell has been speculating about his own politicial ambitions and is considering a run for governor of Minnesota Photo: GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Drew Angerer
He persisted even as other prominent figures were hit with massive lawsuits from the voting companies they had disparaged. Dominion delivered a similar $1.3 billion accusation against Sidney Powell, one of the lawyers spearheading Trump’s many legal efforts to overturn the election results.
“...Lindell knew there was no real ‘evidence’ supporting his claims,” Dominion's lawsuit says. “But Lindell - a talented salesman and former professional card counter - sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows.”
Despite robust investigations and near-universal defeats in court, the narrative of election fraud continues to hold sway in some parts of American society. Trump has yet to concede, and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise refused to say that Trump had fairly lost the election in a weekend interview with ABC.
