Mike Lindell is on trial for defamation. What’s at stake for the Minnesota MyPillow founder.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell plans to take the stand during his federal defamation trial that kicked off this week in Colorado.

The financially struggling Minnesota-based pillow-maker and its outspoken founder could face millions in damages if Lindell is held liable for “numerous false statements, defamatory interviews and other dishonest content,” as the lawsuit alleged.

The suit is the first of three defamation cases against Lindell to reach trial. It’s been more than four years since the MyPillow pitchman launched his campaign against voting-machine companies on unproven claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

A jury will decide whether Lindell defamed a former voting company employee, whom Lindell called “a traitor to the United States” and a “criminal.”

A defiant Lindell held a news conference Monday on the steps of the federal courthouse in Denver, where the trial is taking place. Jury selection was about to begin.

“It’s about securing our elections,” he said. “This case will be a gateway to get rid of these machines and save our country.”

Here’s how the Chaska-raised businessman got to this point.

Eric Coomer, a former executive at Dominion Voting Systems, filed suit against Lindell and his companies in spring 2022. He alleged Lindell targeted him across media platforms to “promote the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged for [the company’s] own financial and political gain,” the lawsuit read.

“Despite defendants’ baseless claims of election fraud being disproven by credible authorities across political parties, they persist in their campaign to profit from the ‘Big Lie’ by destroying the lives of private individuals like Dr. Coomer,” the suit said, adding Coomer “now endures frequent credible death threats and the burden of being made the face of an imagined criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scope in American history.”

The suit does not specify a dollar amount sought for damages, but settlements voting machine companies reached with right-wing media companies have stretched into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lindell has maintained he won’t settle, and he expects to win the case.

“This is the most frivolous thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Lindell said at his Monday news conference.

Since Coomer settled with Newsmax in April 2021, Lindell said he hasn’t been allowed on the conservative network to pitch MyPillow, costing the company millions in lost sales. That’s what brought Coomer to Lindell’s attention.

“I didn’t know the guy, and he came after me,” Lindell said. “He went after MyPillow.”

Lindell said his election quest has bled him and his company dry after big-box retailers dropped MyPillow and legal fees have far outpaced his ability to pay.

Lindell said outlets like Fox News and One America News are “settling out of fear.”

“This is about free speech, too,” Lindell said.

After years of back-and-forth about documents and deadlines — and Lindell hiring new attorneys after his team quit because of nonpayment — the case made it to trial Monday.

In May, Judge Nina Wang chastised Lindell’s lawyers for using generative artificial intelligence in a brief that contained “nearly 30 defective citations,” including to some cases that don’t exist.

While the case progressed, MyPillow suffered financially, and Lindell said that forced him to rely on high-interest loans to pay bills and avoid eviction. Lindell has also been asking for donations to help with the ongoing legal costs.

Lindell still faces federal defamation lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic.

Dominion sued Lindell and MyPillow in February 2021 and is seeking $1.3 billion in damages. That case, in District of Columbia District Court, has not been scheduled for trial and filing deadlines currently stretch into January 2026.

Smartmatic sued Lindell and MyPillow in Minnesota federal court in January 2022. That case has no pending trial dates or specific amount of damages sought and remains mired in document disclosure disputes.

Lindell’s legal troubles don’t end there. FedEx sued him in April for $9 million in unpaid shipping costs. As of March, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is also investigating three nonprofit corporations that list Lindell as president for potential violations of state charity law.