The defamation trial against MyPillow CEO and prominent election denier Mike Lindell began in Denver Monday with the selection of a jury to hear a case over whether Lindell made “false allegations of criminal conduct on a scale unprecedented in American history.”
That is how his conduct is characterized in a lawsuit brought by Eric Coomer, a Colorado resident and former director of product strategy and security for Dominion Voting Systems. Coomer alleges that Lindell and his companies have “gone out of their way to target” Coomer in their pursuit of the repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from President Donald Trump when he lost to Joe Biden.
Coomer filed his lawsuit in Denver District Court in April 2022, and it was later transferred to federal court. The suit says Coomer was defamed by Lindell and suffered severe emotional and physical distress as a result.
The trial is set to last two weeks, with opening arguments set for Tuesday morning. U.S. District Court Judge Nina Wang is overseeing the case. Monday was largely relegated to jury selection, as attorneys for each side sought to suss out bias by prospective jurors.
Questions included where jurors get their news, which social media platforms they use, if they have negative feelings about Trump or his Make America Great Again movement, and their opinions of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and of Lindell’s company, MyPillow.
Following Trump’s 2020 election loss, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine company that supplies equipment to many counties, became central to a conspiracy theory positing that the election was rigged against Trump.
Dominion, as a company, has filed multiple lawsuits over allegations that it was involved in election rigging. It settled one lawsuit against Fox News for nearly $800 million. The conspiracists also targeted Coomer specifically after Colorado podcaster Joe Oltmann named “Eric, the Dominion guy” on his program.
Lindell, a Trump ally and media figure, then ran with the allegations on his platforms, according to Coomer’s lawsuit.
Coomer said he can no longer work in the election industry, after more than 15 years, because of “unwarranted distrust inspired by Defendants’ lies,” according to the lawsuit. Coomer alleges he has faced “frequent credible death threats and the burden of being made the face of an imagined criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scope in American history.”
“(Lindell) has claimed, without evidence, that Dr. Coomer committed treason and that he should turn himself into the authorities,” Coomer’s complaint against Lindell states.
Ahead of the trial’s start, Lindell spoke to supporters and the media on Monday morning. He argued that the lawsuit was “frivolous” and that he had never even heard of Coomer — but he also didn’t step back from his claims about election fraud.
On the courthouse steps ahead of jury selection, he said electronic voting machines should be melted down and turned into prison bars.
“As long as the outcome, whatever it is, leads to getting to paper ballots, hand-counted, like 132 other countries that banned electronic voting machines — if we can get there, I would sacrifice everything. And I have,” Lindell said. “This is the end goal.”
He also cast the trial as a biblical fight between good and evil. His news conference ended with about two dozen supporters praying over him. Several carried signs calling to “Free Tina Peters,” the former Mesa County Clerk who’s serving time in prison for convictions related to providing unauthorized access to election machines following the 2020 election and giving a security badge to a man associated with Lindell.
Coomer is asking for a retraction of all defamatory remarks made by Lindell and monetary damages.
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