Supreme Court Rejects MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s Bid to Dismiss Dominion’s Defamation Lawsuit
MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell, has lost his bid to fend off Dominion’s defamation lawsuit over his far-fetched claims about the 2020 Presidential election. The Supreme Court on 3rd October 2022 rejected his bid to disallow the lawsuit. The case was previously allowed to move forward by a federal judge back in August 2021. The decision by the Supreme Court means that the federal judge’s previous ruling remains in place.
Dominion is a voting machine company that sued Lindell and his company MyPillow in February 2021, alleging that Lindell intentionally pushed the “big lie” that Donald Trump won the 2020 election, even though the claims have been widely debunked. Dominion is arguing $1.3 billion in damages. In the lawsuit, Dominion alleges that Lindell knew his claims were false, while Lindell’s lawyers argue that he genuinely believes them.
Lindell is a well-known TV salesman for the pillows his company makes, and an outspoken supporter of the former President Donald Trump. He repeatedly echoed baseless claims that Dominion’s machines manipulated vote counts to ensure that Joe Biden defeated Trump.
Lindell had unsuccessfully asked U.S. District Judge, Carl Nichols of Washington, D.C., to allow him to appeal two legal questions related to the landmark defamation ruling in 1964 Supreme Court New York Times v. Sullivan. The ruling concluded that for a public figure to pursue a defamation claim, there must be clear evidence of “actual malice.” Lindell argues that Dominion is a public figure because it performs a government function in elections and that the “actual malice” standard applies. His lawyers argue that, since Lindell genuinely believes in his claims, there was no “actual malice,” and the lawsuit should be dismissed.
Dominion also sued Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani for defamation. Nichols allowed those claims to move forward, but Powell and Giuliani were not involved in Lindell’s Supreme Court appeal.
In a separate case, Nichols in May threw out Lindell’s own defamation lawsuit against Dominion and Smartmatic, another voting machine company. Dominion and Smartmatic have also filed similar defamation lawsuits against Fox News and other conservative media outlets.
Two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, have suggested that the 1964 defamation precedent, which makes it harder for public figures to bring defamation claims, should be overturned.
Original Story at www.cnbc.com – 2022-10-03 07:00:00