Trump-Appointed Judge Fines Mike Lindell for ‘Frivolous’ Arguments vs. Smartmatic, ‘History of Noncompliance’

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File

MyPillow proprietor, conspiracy monger, and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Mike Lindell was held in contempt by a federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump, according to a newly-unsealed order, for making “frivolous” arguments in his lawsuit against Smartmatic and citing a “history of noncompliance” in imposing additional fines if he fails to pay.

Lindell has been one of the most vocal proponents of the baseless election conspiracies pushed by Trump in the wake of his loss to Joe Biden in 2020, and faced multiple lawsuits from the people and companies who accused him of defamation. Lindell had claimed without evidence that Smartmatic’s voting machines were connected to the internet, hacked by foreign actors, and then reprogrammed to steal votes from Trump and change them to Biden. Lindell has repeatedly promised to produce “evidence” supporting his claims but has failed to ever do so, and numerous state and federal audits and independent third-party testing confirmed the results of the election and debunked the accusations from Lindell and others.

Last year, Smartmatic won a key legal victory when a judge ruled that none of the conspiracy claims Lindell had made against the company were true, and concluded his accusations were “false and defamatory as a matter of law.” In that same case, the court ruled that Lindell was in contempt and must pay sanctions of $56,369 in legal fees to Smartmatic for a “frivolous” countersuit he had filed against the company. Lindell claimed he was broke and unable to pay.

On March 24, Judge Carl J. Nichols with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, found Lindell in contempt of court for failing to pay the previously-ordered $56,369 in sanctions. Nichols had previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and was appointed to the federal bench in 2019 by Trump.

In the 6-page order, Nichols noted that Lindell’s claims against Smartmatic had previously been ruled to be “frivolous,” sanctions ordered, and when Lindell failed to pay the sanction or enter into an escrow agreement, Smartmatic had moved for civil contempt, and the court ordered Lindell “to submit evidence about his and MyPillow’s financial situation.”

The court had ordered Lindell to “explain whether his crowdsourced legal-defense funds” would allow him to pay the sanction but he failed to respond for months, finally submitting to the court that “his financial picture has not improved” and he had needed those crowdsourced funds for legal expenses in other cases.

Smartmatic countered that Lindell continued to raise money for a “Legal Offense Fund” and a “Legal Defense Fund,” in addition to the money he had raised as a candidate for Minnesota governor. Nichols’s ruling specifically pointed out that Lindell’s campaign finance disclosures showed the campaign had spent $187,000 on Lindell’s books, which were sold by MyPillow, “a company of which Lindell is ‘the Founder, CEO, and Majority Shareholder.'”

“Smartmatic easily satisfies its burden of proving by ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that Lindell violated ‘an order that is clear and unambiguous,'” the judge wrote, and it was “undisputed that Lindell has not paid that amount to Smartmatic,” and “Lindell’s own declaration concedes that he understood what the Court was ordering him to do.”

Lindell’s claims he was unable to pay were rejected by the court, with the judge’s order noting “[s]everal pieces of unrebutted evidence illustrate that Lindell has paid for legal services in other proceedings since the Court entered the sanction order against him.”

The judge granted Smartmatic’s motion for civil contempt, and because of Lindell’s “history of noncompliance,” ordered him to not only pay the $56,369 in previously-ordered sanctions by April 7, but if he does not pay in full by that deadline, a $500 per day penalty.

The order was subject to several redactions and the judge concluded by requesting the parties to submit a “joint proposed redacted version of this order,” which is what was unsealed and put into the public docket.

Read the order here.

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