Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell earlier this year, and now he’s hitting back with a suit of his own.
The company had previously sent letters to the MAGA pillow salesman after he continued to make unfounded claims about the outcome of the 2020 election, placing the blame of Trump’s loss on numerous conspiracy machines regarding their voting software. Instead, as Dominion put it, he “doubled down” on his claims. During a live stream on Monday, Lindell revealed MyPillow had filed a $1.6 billion countersuit against Dominion, CNBC reports.
“This is a free-speech case. This is a First Amendment case,” said Lindell on livestream. The Daily Beast reports that he’s been assembling a legal team mostly comprised of First Amendment specialists, who are expected to not defend Lindell’s comments but his right to make them. Attorneys Nathan Lewin and Alan Dershowitz, who was part of Trump’s impeachment defense team, are among those he’s hired for the case.
“I’ve been on conference calls repeatedly with [Lindell’s] legal team, sometimes Lindell is on, sometimes he’s not,” said Dershowitz, in a phone interview last week with the Daily Beast. “My role is to come up with ideas as they pertain to the First Amendment. I give them cases, and I suggest First Amendment theories—my role is limited to advising on the First Amendment issues at hand.”
In a response provided by Dominion legal counsel Stephen Shackleford, the company criticized Lindell’s countersuit. “This is a meritless retaliatory lawsuit, filed by MyPillow to try to distract from the harm it caused to Dominion,” Shackleford said, while also highlighting that it was Lindell’s comments they’re suing for, not his company as a whole. “In making these statements, Lindell spoke for himself, not MyPillow," Shackleford added.
The countersuit comes just as MyPillow filed a motion to dismiss Dominion’s defamation case on the same day. Lindell is also the same guy who was duped by a Trump impersonator this last week, so perhaps he’s not the best source of news, then.
