Mike Lindell Loses Defamation Case | Major Court Ruling Explained

追加: 2026-05-03

[00:00:00]Yeah, Brianna, a Colorado jury just found that Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, defamed a Dominion Voting Systems employee, a former employee, a gentleman named Eric Coomer. And Mr. Coomer had sued Mike Lindell because Mike Lindell made claims about Coomer, who was the security and product strategy director for Dominion Voting Systems, said all kinds of wonderful things about Mr. Coomer, like he's a traitor, he committed treason, he stole the 2020 election, none of which turned out to be true, obviously. And a jury just handed down a defamation judgment against Mike Lindell for $2.3 million. Now, that may not sound like the enormous mega numbers we've heard in other, for example, Dominion Voting Systems cases, where Fox had to pay out to settle a defamation suit brought by Dominion, and they paid out to the tune of $787 million, more than $3/4 of a billion.

[00:01:00]So, 2.3 million may sound sort of low in comparison to some of those mega judgments, but here's the thing, Mike Lindell actually claims that he was worth $60 million before the 2020 election, and now he claims, we'll take it with a grain of salt, but it sort of rings true, he's in $10 million worth of debt. So, collecting on the judgment may prove to be challenging, but look, it looks like, you know, this was a vindication for kind of the 2020 election results writ large, but really more directly it is a pronouncement by a jury that Mike Lindell, the pillow guy, defamed an employee of Dominion Voting Systems. Now, in the event that Mike Lindell says that he's just not liquid and can't get the money to him, what happens next? How does a a a a a plaintiff here actually collect on the judgment that he was awarded? Yeah, well, courts have ways to enforce money judgments that are handed down by juries in defamation suits and other civil suits. And this is kind of reminiscent about how a jury found that Rudy Giuliani defamed those two Georgia state election workers, Shea Moss and Ruby Freeman. And you know, Shea and Ruby and and their lawyers were forever chasing Rudy, you know, chasing Rudy's assets that he seemed to be shifting and hiding and claiming he no longer had possession of, but they were persistent, they used the courts to help satisfy that judgment, and they began to collect.

[00:02:19]Now, maybe pennies on the dollar, but they began to collect to satisfy that money judgment that a jury entered against Rudy Giuliani. I think now Mr. Coomer's lawyers will go through the same process with Mike Lindell. Look, Mike Lindell can say he's broke, Mike Lindell can say he's in debt, but the courts will make sure that they give Coomer's attorneys everything they need to really get to the bottom of Lindell's assets. You know, sometimes folks try to shift and hide their assets when there's a big money judgment that's been issued against them. So, there are writs of attachment, there are there's garnishment of wages, they can seize any real property, they can seize personal property like cars, electronics, jewelry, and anything else. We don't know what's left of the MyPillow empire, if anything, but the courts are pretty well equipped to make sure that litigants who win these kind of judgments can use every tool available to try to help collect.

[00:03:11]Is this an instance where now we can see other folks who have been defamed by the likes of Mike Lindell recognize that that, you know, they can actually be successful in court, and and they can bring their own lawsuits forward. And so, this might not be the end of these defamation lawsuits at the hands of Dominion Voting Systems or their employees, but rather just the beginning. Yeah, exactly. Right. I think people who might have hesitated, you know, thinking, do I really want to jump into the fray of a civil suit against the pillow guy, this may embolden them to bring claims that they were on the fence about. But, you know, remember, there are other suits that are still out there pending against Newsmax, for example, that was brought by Dominion Voting Systems. That one is still an active defamation case, and we talked about how Fox had to, you know, pay $3/4 of a billion to wiggle out from under the defamation case that they were facing. And I suspect there may be more people out there in the event Mike Lindell told lies about other people or other organizations or businesses in connection with his, you know, election lies, we may see more of these suits filed. Is it the case that this is not necessarily final until he exhausts all of his appeals options? It is. You know, we in this country, we always have a right to appeal. That goes for a the verdict in a criminal case, it goes for a verdict in a civil case like a defamation case. But, here's the thing, Mike Lindell may find himself in a tough spot because courts will often require that the losing party put up enough assets or enough cash to satisfy the judgment in order to perfect their right to appeal. So, we'll see how Mike Lindell tries to play this, but it would sure be good to see some collateral put up, sort of put under the control of the court, so that when and if Mike Lindell loses on appeal, Mr. Coomer will have, you know, some assets from which to collect to satisfy this money judgment.

[00:04:58]Have you been surprised, or is this what you expected as far as these defamation lawsuits stemming from lies about the 2020 election are concerned?

[00:05:06]You know, I I am not surprised by this one. I mean, listen, so many people bought into these, you know, election conspiracies, and many of them, it seems, just wanted to parrot Donald Trump's lies about an election being rigged and stolen, you know, perhaps to remain close to power, remain in Donald Trump's good graces. A lot of good that does people in the long run. So, I'm not at all surprised. I was more surprised by Fox settling for $3/4 of a billion, which was pretty much a tacit admission that yeah, they told a bunch of lies about the 2020 presidential election.

[00:05:41]And and I thought, boy, that's really going to hurt Fox moving forward, because why would anybody believe a network that had to pay $3/4 of a billion to get out from under accusations that they lied about a presidential election? And yet, it doesn't seem to have deterred many of those, you know, religious Fox viewers.

[00:06:00]Well, you know, the interesting thing about that is that the the people who believe the right-wing propaganda being spewed by Fox believe it because the only place that they watch is Fox News, or maybe other right-wing outlets, but essentially Fox News. And so, even in the case of of that settlement by Dominion Voting Systems, Fox News itself isn't going to cover their own settlement. And so, this is the problem kind of exemplified. This is like the perfect microcosm of of the the insulation of right-wing media, because these people will never even know that that lawsuit was settled for $787 million because they watch Fox News. And Fox News isn't going to report honestly about anything that happens that is inconvenient for Republicans, but certainly not an instance where they have to pay out massive sums of money for lying. And so, that's kind of that's like the benefit of of Fox News operating this in this hermetically sealed bubble, is that in the same way that they can protect their viewers from seeing anything that isn't beneficial to the Republican Party, they can also protect themselves and kind of protect their brand in that way.

[00:06:56]Yeah.

[00:06:57]You would think that Fox, you would think that Mike Lindell, you would think that Rudy Giuliani at some point would learn the all-important lesson that one, these lies can very well get you sued, and two, if you're doing it to stay in Donald Trump's good graces, Donald Trump will turn on you at some point if it is in Donald Trump's interest. So, I guess some people just stubbornly refuse to learn lessons even from their own losses. No, I mean, he he will he will throw you under the bus the moment you become politically inconvenient for him.

[00:07:31]And we have seen that countless times.

[00:07:33]We've seen it with Kayleigh McEnany, we've seen it with Michael Cohen, we've seen it with George Papadopoulos, Gordon Sondland.

[00:07:39]Ronna McDaniel was thrown under the bus because he needed somebody to blame for 2022 election losses. I mean, the list goes on and on. And the only thing more embarrassing for these Republicans than hitching their wagons to to to Donald Trump is the fact that all of these people will come along and think that somehow they're special, somehow it'll never happen to them, and and they'll be in his good graces forever. When the reality is that every relationship that Donald Trump engages in is a one-way street. It is, how much can you help him? And that's the only way it goes.

[00:08:06]He's not looking to help you, he's not looking to to to reciprocate any goodwill that you've given him. This is just about how you can be of service to him. And the moment you are no longer of service to him, he has no need for you, and he'll just cast you aside. And you know, you you see the people like Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell who I I presume had a pretty comfortable life before hitching their wagons to Trump.

[00:08:26]Certainly Giuliani did, certainly Mike Lindell did. I mean, Lindell ran his own company, continues to do so. Giuliani was this famed mayor from New York City who, look, I literally have a photo hanging of Rudy Giuliani and Joe Torre in my childhood bedroom back in New Jersey, and it's signed by those guys, because I grew up, you know, an hour outside of outside of the city. And and after 9/11, you would look to somebody like Rudy Giuliani as a hero. And then to see him undergo such a massive fall from grace, not just financially, but just in terms of his his entire brand more broadly, has been really really sad and frankly really pathetic to see. But, all of these guys had a comfortable life beforehand, and then they decided to hitch their wagons to Trump, decided to tie their fortunes to his, and now they're in a position where, you know, Mike Lindell is claiming that he's $10 million in debt. Giuliani had to basically haggle over keeping his watches and his rings so that he had some semblance of his life that he could hang on to in the aftermath of these lawsuits, these defamation lawsuits, because he decided to lie on Trump's behalf. So, look, the same thing that I said before, all of these people will will will throw their fortunes in, throw their lots in with Donald Trump. And at the end of the day, there's hardly anybody you can point to who is better off as the result of their their relationship with Trump now than they were before.