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A jury in Denver, Colorado, has ordered the founder and CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell, to pay $2.3 million in damages to Eric Coomer after finding he defamed him following the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The judge noted that Lindell made false statements accusing Coomer, who is a former security and strategy director at Dominion Voting Systems, of election fraud in 2020, which led to the victory of Joe Biden, according to multiple reports.
According to a report in the BBC, Coomer filed a lawsuit against Lindell in 2022, which also included his companies, My Pillow, Inc. and Lindell TV. He alleged that Mike Lindell was responsible for damaging his career and life.
Mike Lindell is a staunch supporter of Donald Trump. He joined other Trump allies in aggressively advancing unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud and election manipulation during the 2020 presidential elections, according to Reuters.
How have Eric Coomer’s lawyers reacted to the jury’s verdict in the defamation case against Mike Lindell?
Eric Coomer’s lawyers have expressed satisfaction with the jury’s verdict in the defamation case against Mike Lindell.
According to a report in the Colorado Sun, Coomer’s attorney, Charles Caine said:
“We’re thrilled with the verdict.”
He described having mixed emotions,
“in the sense that (Coomer)’s been through a lot and he’s still going to be looking over his shoulder.”
He added:
“Generally, what this verdict says is … individuals who are singled out can get vindication in the courthouse. And hopefully this serves as deterrence for individuals working on our elections from being targeted.”
Caine said that he doesn’t expect the verdict to stop broader election conspiracy theories, but hopes it will keep people who are spreading them from targeting individuals.
On the other hand, Mike Lindell focused on the fact that the jury did not find his company, My Pillow, liable for defamation. He highlighted this point after the verdict was announced. He said:
“This is a huge victory for our country. The big win is, you cannot attack USA companies and expect it's going to work.”
In his lawsuit, Coomer held Lindell and his media platform, FrankSpeech (now LindellTV), for making defamatory statements; however, the jury rejected the claims that My Pillow was liable for defamation.
Coomer was awarded $2.3 million in damages, which was far less than $62.7 million he had requested after the jury found out Mike Lindell’s actions were defamatory but not to the extent claimed by Coomer. According to a report in Fox 5 Atlanta, Lindell called Coomer a traitor and accused him of stealing the 2020 presidential election.
Dominion Voting Systems became the target of conspiracy theories which were pushed by allies of Donald Trump, particularly following the U.S. presidential elections in 2020. These theories claimed that Trump lost the election to Joe Biden because the voting machines were manipulated to rig the election against Trump, according to a report in CBS News.
The report added that Dominion won a $787 million settlement in a defamation lawsuit which was filed against Fox News as it aired false claims against the company in the 2020 election. It filed another lawsuit against Newsmax, which apologized to former Dominion employee Coomer in 2021 for airing false allegations against him.
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