Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani.Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty; Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty; Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty
Dominion Voting Systems is looking to put MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s false election claims to bed with a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed Monday.
Since the fall, the election equipment provider has found itself at the center of baseless right-wing claims supporting former President Trump’s repeated argument he somehow won the2020 election, which he — in fact — lost to PresidentJoe Biden.
Last month, Dominionsued Rudy GiulianiandSidney Powell, two lawyers who represented Trump during hisunsuccessful pushto overturn the election.
Those two lawsuits also seek $1.3 billion in damages, stemming from the lawyers' statements about the company. (Dominion has not sued Trump.)
Lindell, 59, has been an outspoken supporter of the former president’s allegations of election wrongdoing — including a baseless conspiracy that alleges Dominion’s voting machines somehow changed peoples' votes after they were submitted.
The MyPillow CEO has publicly repeated the false election claims about Dominion in interviews and on social media as well as offering promo codes for his companies products that reference the debunked conspiracy — such as “FightForTrump,” “Proof,” and “QAnon.”
“Lindell — a talented salesman and former professional card counter — sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows,” reads Dominion’s lawsuit, filed in a federal Washington, D.C., court on Monday.
Giuliani and Powell did not respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment about their own lawsuits.
Powell has not filed a response to Dominion’s lawsuit against her. Earlier this month, she requested an extension, which was granted until March 22.
Lindell likewise says he welcomes the suit.
“I was hoping they would do that [file a lawsuit against him], because now it’s easier for me to show my evidence and all the proof that I have,” he maintains.
Lindell says Dominion’s claim MyPillow is profiting off his post-election claims is a “lie.”
He says his pillow company lost $65 million in projected revenue this year after retail companies like Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s dropped his products last month. (Bed Bath & Beyond said the move was “data-driven” and MyPillow had been “underperforming.")
Donald Trump (left) and Mike Lindell in 2020.Alex Brandon/AP/Shutterstock
Lindell previously told PEOPLE that he wanted a lawsuit from Dominion because, he claimed, a legal fight would help reveal he was actually telling the truth despite all evidence to the contrary.
“I put a lot of my own money into this — over $2 million,” Lindell said last month, adding that he had spent “every single day since Nov. 4 trying to find out what this deviation was, how these machines did it,” referring to the disproven election claims.
Mike Lindell and Donald Trump.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty
Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani speaking at a news conference on Nov. 19, 2020.MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
Lindell, Powell, and Giuliani have all publicly promoted theories that allege — without evidence — that Dominion was involved in election fraud. For example, goes one claim, the company was created in Venezuela with the intention of changing votes for the dead Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chavez and the system is secretly capable of switching, creating and destroying massive amounts of votes.
Powellmade sweeping claimsabout a “Dominion scam” during a Newsmax interview in November, claiming that Dominion executives, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and “foreign actors” from Venezuela were involved in the plot.
Giuliani also made false claims about election fraud tied to Dominion’s machines during interviews, speeches and on his podcast. The Associated Pressreportsthe former New York City mayor alleged on his podcast that “Dominion had stolen the election ‘technologically.’ "
There is no evidence to support those claims. Dominion was founded in Toronto and is currently based in Denver.
Dominion CEO John Poulossaid in a statementMonday that Lindell, the latest subject of the company’s lawsuits, has “maliciously spread false claims” about them “despite repeated warnings and efforts to share the facts with him.”
“These claims have caused irreparable harm to Dominion’s good reputation and threatened the safety of our employees and customers,” Poulos said. “Moreover, Mr. Lindell’s lies have undermined trust in American democracy and tarnished the hard work of local election officials.”
As the company alleged in its other lawsuits against Trump’s former attorneys, Dominion accuses Lindell of pushing what it refers to as “The Big Lie” about its machines and the outcome of the 2020 election.
“Through discovery, Dominion will prove that there is no real evidence supporting the Big Lie,” the lawsuit reads. “Dominion brings this action to vindicate the company’s rights, to recover damages, to seek a narrowly tailored injunction, to stand up for itself and its employees, and to stop Lindell and MyPillow from further profiting at Dominion’s expense.”
source: people.com
