Jury finds MyPillow founder defamed former employee for a leading voting equipment company

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"Jury Rules Mike Lindell Defamed Former Dominion Employee Eric Coomer"

Jury finds MyPillow founder defamed former employee for a leading voting equipment company analysis cover image CNN 7.7
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Original Article Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/16/media/mypillow-lindell-lawsuit-election
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TruthLens AI Summary

A federal jury in Colorado has ruled that Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and a prominent figure in the election conspiracy movement, defamed Eric Coomer, a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems, by making false statements about him after the 2020 presidential election. The jury awarded Coomer $2.3 million in damages, affirming that Lindell's claims, which included labeling Coomer a traitor and accusing him of participating in election fraud, were not only untrue but also damaging to Coomer's reputation and personal life. Coomer, who served as the security and product strategy director at Dominion, testified that the fallout from Lindell's accusations destroyed his career and well-being. Lindell's online media platform was implicated in disseminating these defamatory statements, although Lindell's legal team contended that he should not be held accountable for the remarks made by others on his platform.

During the trial, Lindell maintained his stance that the 2020 election was marred by fraud, a belief he attributes to various sources, including a documentary and statements from former national security adviser Michael Flynn. However, he did not present any expert testimony to support his claims in court. Coomer's legal representatives argued that Lindell's statements were particularly harmful, especially when he accused Coomer of treason, which constitutes defamation. Lindell's defense asserted that the statements were protected by the First Amendment since they pertained to public concerns about elections. The jury's decision highlights the significant consequences of spreading unfounded conspiracy theories, particularly in the context of the 2020 election, where numerous investigations and legal actions have reaffirmed the legitimacy of the electoral process despite ongoing claims of fraud from supporters of former President Trump.

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Source URL: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/16/media/mypillow-lindell-lawsuit-election

A federal jury in Colorado on Monday found that one of the nation’s most prominent election conspiracy theorists, MyPillow founderMike Lindell, defamed a former employee for a leading voting equipment company after the 2020 presidential election.

The employee, Eric Coomer, was awarded $2.3 million in damages. He had sued after Lindell called him a traitor and accusations about him stealing the election were streamed on Lindell’s online media platform.

Coomer was the security and product strategy director at Denver-basedDominion Voting Systems, whose voting machines became the target of elaborate conspiracy theories among allies of President Donald Trump, who continues tofalsely claimthat hisloss to Democrat Joe Bidenin 2020 was due to widespread fraud.

Dominion won a$787 million settlementin a defamation lawsuit it filed against Fox News over itsairing of false claimsagainst the company and has another lawsuit against the conservative network Newsmax.

Newsmax apologizedto Coomer in 2021 for airing false allegations against him.

Coomer said during the two-week Lindell trial that his career and life were destroyed by the statements. His lawyers said Lindell either knew the statements were lies, or conveyed them recklessly without knowing if they were true.

Lindell’s lawyers denied the claims and said his online platform, formerly known as Frankspeech, is not liable for statements made by others.

Lindell said he went to trial to draw attention to the need to get rid ofelectronic voting machinesthat have beentargetedin a web ofconspiracy theories.He said he used to be worth about $60 million before he started speaking out about the 2020 election and is now$10 million in debt.

Reviews,recountsandauditsin thebattleground stateswhere Trump contested his loss in 2020 all affirmed DemocratJoe Biden’s victory. Trump’sattorney generalat the time said there was no evidence of widespread fraud, and Trump and his allies lostdozens of court casesseeking to overturn the result.

Lindell stuck by hisfalse claimsthat the 2020 presidential election was stolen during the trial, but did not call any experts to present evidence of his claims.

Lindell said his beliefs that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud were influenced by watching the 2020 HBO documentary “Kill Chain” and by the views of Trump’s former national security adviser,Michael Flynn. In an interview for a documentary Lindell made in 2021, Flynn said foreign interference was going to happen in U.S. elections, and Lindell said he had no reason to doubt the claim since Flynn had worked for both political parties in intelligence.

Lindell distanced himself from an account by a Colorado podcaster who claimed to have heard a conference call from the anti-fascist groupAntifabefore the 2020 election. The podcast claimed that on the call someone named Eric from Dominion said he would make sure that Trump would not win, a story that was recounted on Frankspeech during a 2021 event. Lindell said he only learned about that during the trial.

Lindell said he never accused Coomer of rigging the election, but he did say he was upset because he said Newsmax blocked him from being able to go on air to talk about voting machines after it apologized to Coomer. Coomer denied there was any such deal to block Lindell under his agreement with the network.

Coomer’s lawyers tried to show how their client’s life was devastated by theconspiracy theoriesspreading about him. Lindell was comparatively late to seize on Coomer, not mentioning him until February 2021, well after his name had been circulated by other Trump partisans.

Coomer said the conspiracy theories cost him his job, his mental health and the life he’d built and said Lindell’s statements were the most distressing of all. He specifically pointed to a statement on May 9, 2021, when Lindell described what he believed Coomer had done as “treason.”

Lindell’s attorneys argued that Coomer’s reputation was already in tatters by the time Lindell mentioned him. They said that was partly because of Coomer’s own Facebook posts disparaging Trump, which the former Dominion employee acknowledged were “hyperbolic” and had been a mistake.

Lindell denied making any statements he knew to be false about Coomer and testified that he has called many people traitors. His lawyers argued the statements were about a matter of public concern — elections — and therefore protected by the First Amendment.

But Coomer’s lawyers said the statements crossed the line into defamation because Lindell accused Coomer of treason, a crime.

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Source: CNN