Dominion Voting Systems, the voting machine company targeted by former president Donald Trump and his allies concerning stolen election claims, sued MyPillow CEO Mike Lindel in a $1.3 billion defamation action Monday. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, where Mike Lindell and MyPillow advertised and promoted the Stop the Steal march on January 6.
This lawsuit follows a January cease and desist letter, which Lindel did not heed. The complaint alleges that Lindel appeared on several conservative news shows after the January cease and desist letter.
Dominion Voting Systems machines were used in 28 states in the 2020 election, including in critical swing states Georgia and Wisconsin. Following the election, Lindell falsely claimed that the algorithms in Dominion’s voting machines “broke,” causing states like Georgia and Wisconsin to go to President Joe Biden, despite Georgia’s manual recount of the ballots.
This is one of several defamation lawsuits Dominion has filed since the 2020 election. In January Dominion filed a defamation suit against Rudy Giuliani based on similar claims of election fraud. Dominion’s competitor, Smartmatic, sued Fox News in early February.
Dominion seeks $1.3 billion in damages in the lawsuit against Lindell, including about $650 million in punitive damages and $650 million in compensatory damages. Dominion also seeks an injunction to remove all false or defamatory statements made by Lindell against Dominion.