A Trump-appointed federal judge held Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, in contempt of court for failing to pay more than $50,000 in sanctions to the voting system company Smartmatic after bringing a “frivolous” countersuit against the company.
District Court Judge Carl Nichols, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, ordered Lindell at the end of March to pay Smartmatic $56,369 in attorney fees by April 7 – as well as an additional $500 for each day he failed to do so.
Nichols said that Lindell, who is currently running for governor in Minnesota, failed to provide evidence that “he currently has a negative net worth” or that “MyPillow is losing money” and is unable to pay the sanctions that Nichols initially imposed in January 2025. Lindell has said in court filings that he is cash-strapped.
Rather, Lindell has openly admitted to using legal defense funds to pay for legal services in other cases.
Additionally, Smartmatic had produced evidence suggesting Lindell “likely received a financial benefit” recently from his gubernatorial campaign, which purchased $187,000 in “Mike Lindell Books.”
It’s unclear whether Lindell paid $56,369 to Smartmatic since the March order. The Independent has asked Lindell’s attorney for comment.
Lindell countersued Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, now known as Liberty Vote Holdings Inc., in 2021 after the companies sued him for defamation because he spread lies about their equipment rigging the 2020 election in favor of former President Joe Biden.
Lindell has been a fervent supporter of Trump and embarked on a campaign to spread the president’s false claims about election fraud after Trump lost the 2020 campaign.
Ultimately, a Colorado jury determined Lindell defamed Dominion Voting Systems and ordered him to pay $2.3 million in damages. A Minnesota judge has also determined Lindell defamed Smartmatic.
Nichols had dismissed Lindell’s countersuit in 2022, determining that the MyPillow CEO’s claims, at the very least, fell “on the frivolous side of the line.” He ordered him to pay the $56,369 in legal fees to Smarmatic for bringing the countersuit.
But more than a year later, Lindell has still not paid and “fails to establish an inability to pay that excuses his noncompliance.”
“Although Lindell provides documents purporting to prove that he currently has a negative net worth and that My Pillow is losing money, those documents are insufficient to establish that he ‘lacked the financial ability to comply,’” Nichols wrote in the six-page order that was unsealed Tuesday.
Lindell’s gubernatorial campaign purchased at least $187,037 worth of his memoir “What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO” for advertising purposes, according to campaign finance data.
Lindell told the Minnesota Reformer in February that he was giving out his book instead of traditional campaign flyers. He claimed that MyPillow owned the book.
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