Mike Lindell, president and president of My Pillow Inc., speaks throughout the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019.
Aaron P. Bernstein | Bloomberg | Getty Images
MyPillow, the bed linen business led by the pro-Trump CEO Mike Lindell, on Monday submitted a $1.6 billion claim versus Dominion Voting Systems, which is presently taking legal action against Lindell and his service for libel.
“This is a free-speech case. This is a First Amendment case,” Lindell stated on a livestreamed broadcast revealing the claim.
The election-technology company Dominion took legal action against MyPillow and Lindell in February, implicating them of spreading out the incorrect claim that the business rigged the 2020 election for President Joe Biden by controling votes. Former President Donald Trump’s project and his allies lost lots of claims in their sweeping effort to reverse essential states’ election outcomes and turn the result of the race.
Dominion is looking for more than $1.3 billion in punitive and offsetting damages, stating the “viral disinformation campaign” spread out by Lindell and others has “irreparably damaged” the business’s credibility. Dominion has actually submitted comparable claims versus Trump’s legal representative Rudy Giuliani, lawyer Sidney Powell and Fox News.
The brand-new grievance from MyPillow, submitted in Minnesota federal court, implicates Dominion of waging an “illegal campaign to punish and silence their critics.”
MyPillow’s claim likewise makes a difference in between Lindell and his business, arguing, “MyPillow has not engaged in discussion about the 2020 election.”
“In making these statements, Lindell spoke for himself, not MyPillow,” the claim states.
Andrew Parker, an attorney for MyPillow, rejected that MyPillow’s court action made up a countersuit versus Dominion.
But the claim itself states it is being brought “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.”
“This is a meritless vindictive claim, submitted by MyPillow to attempt to sidetrack from the damage it triggered to Dominion,” stated Stephen Shackelford, legal counsel for Dominion, in a declaration to CNBC.
Dominion has actually signified that extra claims might be en route. Shackelford stated last month that the business has not “ruled out any parties, including individual agents of Fox News.”
MyPillow on Monday early morning submitted a movement to dismiss Dominion’s libel case.
