I spent a bit of time yesterday reading the complaint in the case of U.S. Dominion, Inc. et. al. v. My Pillow, Inc., et. al over the last couple of days. You can read and/or download it here. Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, is one of the et. als. among the defendants. It’s a fun read, but I must say that I am now feeling just a bit naive, for I didn’t know what a grift his whole act has been.
I knew that MyPillow itself was a scam, but it never occurred to me that all his bloviating about the election was primarily a way for him to sell more pillows. The complaint lays it all out in exhaustive detail.
In my own defense, I don’t directly consume the fictions peddled on Fox or the even more extreme right wing media on which Lindell has appeared, so I wasn’t aware that each and every one of his appearances was nothing more than a commercial for MyPillow, complete with discount codes like QAnon. The complaint documents that while he has been dropped by some major retailers, mail order business has never been better, and has more than made up for any losses in the retail sector.
So you have to hand it to the guy. He saw an opportunity and he grabbed it. His business has, as the complaint also documented, always been based on fraud, and he knows where the marks are. Under each MAGA hat there sits a brain, or what passes for a brain, that is completely bereft of fraud detectors. Such brains actually believed the stuff spewed by a person who formerly occupied the office of President of the United States. Lindell saw that they were ripe for picking. All he had to do was feed them the lies they wanted to hear, assure them he was telling them the truth, and remind them that they weren’t really supporting the cause unless they were also buying one of his pillows. It was that tactic that allowed Dominion to sue not only Lindell, but his company, because in all his appearances his connection to MyPillow is front and center, and he is clearly speaking on its behalf. If Dominion gets a judgment, it will be able to seek monetary satisfaction against MyPillow, and not just Lindell, who will probably hide his assets while the case is proceeding.
The lawsuit was filed in DC, and there’s a reasonable chance it will be assigned to a decent district court judge. I think there’s a reasonable chance that a judge would enter a summary judgment as to liability, based on the exhaustive facts alleged, all of which seem to be easily provable, as most of them are a matter of record, either on video, written form, or social media posts. For you non-lawyers out there, a judge can enter a summary judgment, no trial necessary, if there is no dispute as to the material facts necessary to support a judgment. In that context, you can’t get away with simply saying you do dispute a fact, you have to come up with a solid basis for doing so, such that a reasonable jury might go your way. If such a judgment were entered, the jury would be required to determine the amount of damages only.
In any event, it looks like a rock solid case, assuming you can get a jury free of folks with the kind of brain I described a few paragraphs ago. Assuming Dominion does get a judgment, it will be interesting to see if any appellate judges decide that it’s worth distorting the law and their reputations in order to give Lindell a get out of jail free card. My guess is that the Appeals Courts will take a pass on rescuing Lindell and the rest of the folks Dominion has sued. Even the judges appointed by Trump are likely to do that, since they all know he actually had nothing to do with appointing them. He just did what the Federalist Society told him to do, as will the next Republican they get in. Most of them will probably make the calculation that the chances of getting another Republican president soon will be enhanced if Trump can be shoved down the memory hole.
Afterword: After I wrote the above, my wife sent me a link to this article at Talking Points. Apparently Lindell, after initially saying he welcomed the lawsuit, is now having second thoughts.
The complaint includes this sourced allegation:
Lindell began benefitting at Dominion’s expense even before producing and broadcasting his “ABSOLUTE PROOF” “docu-movie.” Indeed, every time Lindell was called out for making false claims about Dominion, his business “would go up anywhere from 10 to 30%” because, as Lindell has explained, “everybody on the Right buys more, they buy more to support the cause.” As a result of the defamatory marketing campaign against Dominion, MyPillow sales are up 30 to 40% and MyPillow is the busiest it has ever been.
Lindell is now trying to walk back the happy talk, claiming he has lost millions in revenue as a result of being dropped by the big box retailers. Apparently, he has had a sit down with his lawyers, who can’t be looking forward to defending the case. In any event, they should get their money up front. He is a fan of the genius’s after all.
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