MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to pay $2.3 million for defaming voting machine employee

Following a two-week trial in Colorado, a federal jury on Monday found businessman Mike Lindell defamed a former voting machine company employee.

The outspoken founder and CEO of Minnesota-based MyPillow had railed against Eric Coomer, a former Dominion Voting Systems executive, as part of Lindell’s unproven claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Coomer sued for defamation in 2022, saying he had received death threats after Lindell called him a “traitor” and a “criminal.”

An eight-person jury awarded Coomer $2.3 million in damages. Coomer’s attorneys had asked the jury to award $62 million in damages.

“Hopefully this serves as deterrence for individuals working on our elections from being targeted,” Coomer’s attorney, Charles Caine, told Colorado Public Radio.

Chaska-based MyPillow, which was named in the suit, was not found liable for defamation. But the jury did find FrankSpeech, now known as LindellTV, liable.

“MyPillow was 100% vindicated,” Lindell said on his streaming platform after the verdict came out Monday evening as he claimed a “huge victory” in the case. “The monetary stuff, that will be appealed. They never proved any damages.”

Lindell said in his testimony he is $10 million in debt.

Coomer previously settled with conservative outlet Newsmax for an undisclosed sum. Newsmax issued an apology as part of the settlement and said in a statement about its voter fraud coverage that the network “subsequently found no evidence that such allegations were true.”

Lindell has attempted to cash in on the attention the case is receiving, at one point offering deals on MyPillow products with the promo code “JURY.” The company has been in dire financial straits since major retailers pulled MyPillow from shelves in response to Lindell’s repeated unproven claims the 2020 election was somehow stolen.

Election officials from both major parties around the country and independent experts have found no evidence for those claims.

At a news conference before the trial started, Lindell said the case would be “a gateway to get rid of these [voting] machines and save our country.”

“This is about free speech, too,” he said, which was the focus of his defense.

Before the verdict was read, Lindell attacked voting machines and the media on LindellTV: “I will never stop.”

Lindell still faces two other defamation cases from voting machine companies, including one that is seeking $1.5 billion in damages. Neither case has been scheduled for trial.

This Associated Press contributed to this story.