MyPillow CEO Sues Dominion For Violating His Company's Right To Say The Things About Election Fraud It Definitely Isn't Saying

from the [rereads-headline]-...-look,-I-just-work-here... dept

Trump supporter and pillow manufacturer Mike Lindell was among those sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems over weeks of wild allegations about voter fraud that followed Donald Trump's loss at the polls in the 2020 election. Mike Lindell and his company, MyPillow, joined such luminaries as Rudy Giuliani and former Trump legal team member Sidney Powell as a recipient of a billion-dollar libel lawsuit.

Now, Mike Lindell is fighting back. He's attempting to dismiss Dominion's lawsuit, claiming his alleged libel was nothing more than heated commentary touching on important political issues. More credibly, he's asking his company to be dismissed from the lawsuit because his company did not make any of the statements Dominion is suing over.

Less credibly, he's filed a lawsuit [PDF] of his own against Dominion, claiming that naming his company as a defendant in a lawsuit somehow violates his company's rights. Considering this suit is only supposed to be about Dominion's "silencing" of MyPillow, the complaint spends a lot of its run time trotting out supporting evidence for the claims about Dominion Lindell says his company never made.

That leads to some really weird assertions by Lindell, like the claim that naming a company in a lawsuit is an attempt to silence anyone associated with MyPillow and/or allegations of election fraud.

Dominion’s true purpose is not simply to silence Mike Lindell, but to silence anyone else who might speak out on election fraud. Thus, Dominion also sued the company Mike Lindell founded, MyPillow, and hence its hundreds of employees, some of whom are co-owners. Dominion did not sue MyPillow because MyPillow made statements about Dominion. MyPillow made no such statements. Instead, by suing MyPillow, Dominion seeks to punish MyPillow’s CEO, Mike Lindell, for his statements. Dominion also seeks to send a message to others: “Shut up or else.”

But who is Dominion shutting up? Lindell claims it's trying to silence MyPillow, even though he also claims there's nothing to be silenced.

Having never commented on the election or Dominion, MyPillow has nonetheless borne the full wrath of Dominion’s illegal campaign of intimidation.

So, the speech MyPillow isn't engaging in needs to be protected… otherwise it won't feel comfortable continuing to not offer its opinion on topics of public debate.

Dominion is using the legal process as a weapon to suppress free speech. In contrast, MyPillow brings this action to open debate and expand free speech. Indeed, MyPillow would move this entire debate to the public square for a full airing of all facts and opinions on the subject. This lawsuit is brought in support of the marketplace of ideas and to remedy the grave harm that has been suffered by MyPillow as a result of Dominion’s suppression of speech and attacks on the Company.

Now, there may be some "grave harm" to be examined, but probably not under these claims. MyPillow has lost customers due to Mike Lindell's actions (and reactions to those actions, like Dominion's libel lawsuit). But none of that can plausibly be traced to Dominion adding MyPillow as a defendant in a civil lawsuit, especially since it's likely to be dropped as a defendant once the court handles Lindell's motion to dismiss.

Then there's the question of how one private company (Dominion Voting Systems) can violate the rights of another private company (MyPillow), especially when the only thing involved at this point is a single libel lawsuit. Lindell theorizes Dominion is actually a government actor and that's how rights can be violated. But even if Dominion is considered a government actor, its government work is limited to production and support of voting software and hardware. The lawsuit brought against Lindell for defamation is not part of its government role.

What follows these accusations is a bunch of narrative that supposedly supports the claims about Dominion Lindell says MyPillow never made. Then it's back to the action, where Dominion suing a handful of people for libel is every censorial cliche all at once.

Dominion’s campaign descends from a long and sad history in this country, the McCarthy era in which lives and organizations were destroyed, and families torn apart, for being labeled a Communist. Just as during that era being associated with a suspected Communist could end a professional career, so too today, those who, like MyPillow are merely associated with a critic of Dominion and the integrity of the 2020 election, face expulsion from public life in large parts of America. Dominion is using today’s cancel culture to eliminate dissent and to cover up the election issues that compromised the 2020 result.

Oh, McCarthyism? As in Sentor Joseph McCarthy, an actual government actor? Or is this some off-brand McCarthyism that can only be waged by private contractors supplying tech to government agencies? Cancel culture should help fill out your batshit lawsuit bingo cards, although it is disappointing Lindell never chooses to refer to Dominion as "woke."

And then there's more about how much MyPillow has been harmed:

Even giant, publicly traded retailers are not immune from public opinion and political pressures. Fearing retribution in the marketplace, many of MyPillow’s commercial suppliers and buyers have as a direct result of Dominion’s crusade terminated longstanding relationships with MyPillow which were projected to grow.

If Lindell was being honest, he would understand it was his public statements that caused this to happen, not Dominion's lawsuit. The list of things that have happened to MyPillow -- including the loss of social media accounts and employees being harassed -- can be directly tied to Lindell's "heated political commentary." You know, the baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud that have yet to be proven anywhere.

This sort of thing may work in a motion to dismiss:

MyPillow has never entered the public debate about the 2020 election; again, it has made no statement about Dominion whatsoever.

But it makes absolute zero sense in a standalone lawsuit filed by MyPillow, especially when its followed by this:

Defendants’ illegal campaign to punish and silence their critics violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment as applied to the states and their political subdivisions and agents under the Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

According to Lindell's own claims, MyPillow is not, nor has it ever been, a critic of Dominion. You can't sue over speech you haven't made. You can make a claim about prior restraint, but that's going to fail because Dominion isn't a government entity, nor has it secured a court order forbidding Lindell's company from "entering the public debate."

Just really amazing stuff in here:

Defendants’ reprisal actions were motivated, at least in part, by MyPillow’s and its CEO’s exercise of their free speech rights protected under the First Amendment and, as applied against the states and their political subdivisions and agents, the Fourteenth Amendment.

Again, the rights Lindell swears MyPillow isn't utilizing.

Galaxy brain litigation:

As the result of Defendants’ actions, and as expected and intended by them, Plaintiff suffered the loss of substantial property interests, including, but not limited to, loss of long-standing business relationships, loss of supplier contracts, and loss of access to promotional access in media.

Plaintiff was not provided due process in connection with the loss of its property interests caused by Defendants.

I guess Lindell is unaware of the lawsuit he's currently trying to dismiss. That litigation is due process exemplified. Dominion has made accusations. Lindell is being given the opportunity to dispute those allegations. This is literally the due process he's claiming has been denied him by Dominion's lawsuit. (Also, Dominion isn't a government entity so the rights violation claims are still utterly ridiculous even without this absurdity piled on top.)

To sum up: the claims will fail because they are terrible, but mostly because they are also being brought against a non-government entity under the theory that it's actually a government entity. I assume the judge handling this will read it as a motion to dismiss that was filed in the wrong court and kindly ask Lindell to stop wasting the court's time.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, defamation, free speech, mike lindell, pillows
Companies: dominion, dominion voting systems, mypillow

Dominion Sues Rudy Giuliani For $1.3 Billion Over False Statements About Its Voting Systems

from the enjoy-your-self-inflicted-shitshow,-Rudy dept

During the runup to the presidential election, through the election, past the election, past the Electoral College vote, past the states' certification of votes, multiple recounts and investigations, all the way up until VP Mike Pence was due to certify the vote, Donald Trump and his squad of sycophants claimed -- without evidence -- the election was fraudulent.

These claims -- buttressed by public statements, heated tweets, and multiple baseless lawsuits -- lit a fuse that triggered a January 6th explosion when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in a futile attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election.

Roughly a week after the insurrection, Dominion Voting Systems -- accused of being a tool of the corrupt Venezuelan government -- sued one of the more batshit extensions of Trump's legal army, Sidney Powell. The defamation suit accused Powell of lying about pretty much everything related to Dominion.

Unfortunately for Dominion, it is a public figure so it's going to have to prove deliberately false statements were made by people who knew the claims were false when they made them. Powell might be able to walk away from this suit, despite all of her false statements. Some were made in court which makes those claims immune from lawsuits. But others were made in public and those might end up costing her some money. Truth is the absolute defense to immunity but being a living, breathing caricature who embraces every galaxy brain conspiracy theory that floats by in the internet flotsam is also a defense. And that defense is "no one takes me seriously so it's unlikely any reasonable people took my wild-ass lying claims about Dominion seriously either." If Alex Jones can use it, so can Sidney Powell.

Dominion's next target is Rudy Giuliani, someone who echoed a bunch of Powell's wild claims and continued to do so as the Trump campaign (and other pro-Trumpers) lost lawsuit after lawsuit attempting to overturn election results.

Giuliani's escapades as Trump's legal rep have made it possible for him to make the same claim in his defense: that he's so devoid of credibility no reasonable person would take his claims seriously. But Dominion's lawsuit [PDF] makes a good case for a finding of actual malice by pointing out certain actions taken (or not taken) by Giuliani that strongly suggest he knew his public anti-Dominion statements were false.

The opening paragraph spells it out succinctly:

During a court hearing contesting the results of the 2020 election in Pennsylvania, Rudy Giuliani admitted that the Trump Campaign "doesn't plead fraud" and that "this is not a fraud case." Although he was unwilling to make false election fraud claims about Dominion and its voting machines in a court of law because he knew those allegations were false, he and his allies manufactured and disseminated the "Big Lie," which foreseeably went viral and deceived millions of people into believing that Dominion has stolen their votes and fixed the election.

The lawsuit runs 107 pages, but that's the crux of it. Giuliani made a lot of false public statements about Dominion, but he refused to make those claims in court. When lawsuits were filed, Giuliani wasn't about to turn his press conference ravings into sworn statements. That's a pretty solid indicator Giuliani had his doubts about some of the things he was saying publicly about Dominion. But it didn't stop him from saying these things publicly. It didn't stop him from making an alleged $20,000/day as Trump's legal rep. And it didn't stop him from shilling products on his podcasts and YouTube videos, where he repeated his false claims.

And there's a strong argument for damages. Almost anything Trump, Giuliani, and other pro-Trump litigators said about stolen elections and Dominion's involvement went viral. Dominion's reputation has certainly been harmed. There's a whole subset of Americans out there who fervently believe Dominion voting machines run on software developed by a company allegedly run by deceased dictator Hugo Chavez -- software apparently created solely for the purpose of stealing votes and elections. No part of this allegation is true and Dominion uses no software created by this company. But thousands -- if not millions -- of people still believe this, even though no evidence has surfaced to back these claims.

And, despite this lack of evidence, Giuliani has refused to retract any of his false claims. If Dominion can surmount the "actual malice" bar in this case, the former New York mayor (and current MAGA madman) could be out of a whole lot of his $20k/day money. Dominion is asking for $1.3 billion in damages. It will certainly not be awarded this amount even if it wins, but the damages will still be sizable and it may be able to recover its legal fees on top of it.

This isn't a slam dunk case but it's still going to be very difficult for Giuliani to get this one dismissed. A man who beclowned himself for Trump and his base is going to have a hard time talking himself out of this one.

Filed Under: actual malice, defamation, rudy giuliani, sidney powell
Companies: dominion, dominion voting systems