Federal jury rules against Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, for defaming a former Dominion Voting Systems executive

A federal jury in Colorado found that Mike Lindell, founder of MyPillow, defamed Dominion Voting Systems' former director of security and product strategy, Eric Coomer, by making false statements about his role in the 2020 presidential election pitting Joe Biden against Donald Trump.

Coomer filed suit after Lindell publicly accused him of being a "traitor" and allowed allegations against him to be spread on Frankspeech, the MyPillow CEO's digital platform.

The claims against Coomer, which caused an uproar, linked him without evidence to alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Dominion Voting Systems, based in Denver, is a company that makes voting machines and software that was the subject of numerous allegations of fraud and unproven irregularities following Biden's victory over Trump.

In 2023, Dominion reached a $787 million settlement after suing Fox News for spreading false information about its operations.

Currently, the company maintains an ongoing lawsuit against the Newsmax network, which in 2021 publicly apologized to Coomer himself for spreading false allegations against it.

During the two-week trial, Coomer detailed that Lindell's statements of "betrayal" ruined his professional career and deeply affected his personal life. His lawyers said Lindell either knew the claims against his client were untrue or, failing that, acted with complete disregard for their veracity.

In the other corner, Lindell argued during the trial that he decided to go to court to draw attention to his critical position on the use of electronic machines in elections. He also said that as a result of his post-2020 activism, his fortune went from $60 million to a significant $10 million in debt.

The jury made its decision after hearing that Lindell based part of his beliefs on the documentary "Kill Chain" (HBO) and statements by former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who argued that there was a risk of foreign interference in the U.S. election system. Lindell said he considered Flynn an impartial source, despite ties to President Trump.

During the trial, Lindell also denied directly accusing Coomer of tampering with the 2020 election despite describing him as a traitor in 2021.

Lindell's lawyers also argued that Coomer's reputation was already compromised before Lindell brought it up, in part because of Coomer's own social media posts where he harshly criticized Trump.

Coomer insisted that, despite multiple accusations against him from different conservative activist outlets, Lindell's statements were the ones that hurt him the most.