Voting systems company Smartmatic says Lindell should be held in civil contempt for failing to pay more than $50,000 over a frivilous counterclaim.
WASHINGTON โ MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell told a federal judge Wednesday he has no money to pay thousands of dollars in sanctions imposed in one of the long-running lawsuits against him over his false election fraud claims.
During a court hearing, Lindell said he and his company face a combined $70 million in debt and ongoing garnishment by the IRS.
โNobody will borrow me any more. Not one dime,โ Lindell said. โIโm in ruins.โ
Last month, the voting systems company Smartmatic asked a federal judge in D.C. to hold Lindell in civil contempt over his failure to pay more than $50,000 in sanctions for filing a frivolous counterclaim in a defamation suit brought by a separate company, Dominion Voting Systems.
Lindell is facing lawsuits in both D.C. and Minnesota for allegedly using his connection to President Donald Trump and his continued false claims about fraud in the 2020 election to boost MyPillowโs sales. In its lawsuit filed in 2021, Dominion said Lindell continued to โsell the lieโฆ because the lie sells pillows.โ
Lindell has said in court filings that at one point his company was generating as much as $300 million in annual revenue. On Wednesday, he claimed he is now living off $1,000 a week because of what he described as a campaign of โlawfareโ against him.
โI donโt have $5,000 or 5 cents,โ Lindell said.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee who is presiding over Dominionโs defamation case against Lindell, said he would need to see financial documents from MyPillow and Lidnell before ruling on Smartmaticโs motion. He gave Lindell until the end of the week to provide those to him in a sealed filing.
Wednesdayโs hearing was just the latest in a string of legal troubles for Lindell. Last month, a federal judge in Minnesota found him in contempt of court for failing to turn over discovery in Smartmaticโs ongoing defamation case against him. The company says it has suffered billions of dollars in damages from Lindellโs false claims that it was involved in a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election. As of Wednesday, no trial date had yet been set in that case.
Lindell was previously ordered to pay a software engineer $5 million after he responded to a challenge to prove the MyPillow CEOโs claims about manipulated voting machines were false. Lindell appealed that decision, and the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case in October. The appellate court has not yet ruled in the case.
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