The suit is the latest in multibillion-dollar court actions taken by voting machine companies in the wake of the 2020 US election.
MyPillow Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mike Lindell tried to boost sales by adopting Donald Trump’s false claims about a vast election conspiracy, according to a $1.3 billion lawsuit filed by a voting machine company.
Dominion Voting Systems Inc.’s defamation suit, filed Monday in federal court in Washington, alleges Lindell repeatedly echoed the “big lie” about election fraud despite knowing that no such fraud had occurred. The suit says Lindell increased sales as much as 40% by repeating the false claims on conservative media while pitching promotional codes for his products like “FightForTrump,” “45,” and “QAnon.”
The suit is the latest in a series of multibillion-dollar court actions taken by voting machine companies against high-profile supporters of Donald Trump, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, for spreading disinformation about voter fraud. Earlier this month, Fox Corp. canceled the Lou Dobbs show a day after the network and Dobbs were named in a $2.7 billion lawsuit by Smartmatic Corp., another voting machine company that has claimed defamation.
Dominion said it warned Lindell in several letters in December and January to stop making false accusations about the company or a face a possible defamation suit.
“Despite repeated warnings and efforts to share the facts with him, Mr. Lindell has continued to maliciously spread false claims about Dominion, each time giving empty assurances that he would come forward with overwhelming proof,” Dominion CEO John Poulos said in a statement. “These claims have caused irreparable harm to Dominion’s good reputation and threatened the safety of our employees and customers.”
