MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell takes stand in Denver defamation trial, continues attacks on plaintiff

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell took the stand Monday in the ongoing defamation trial against him, where he remained committed to his crusade against voting machines and his widely debunked conspiracy that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Lindell also continued his attacks against Eric Coomer, the former Dominion Voting Systems executive, even as he sought to distance himself from claims that he specifically coordinated attacks against Coomer at a 2021 convention Lindell organized about the conspiracy theory.

Lindell attacked Coomer as merely seeking money and grinding a political ax.

“(I) cost Dr. Coomer what?” Lindell said in response to a question from one of Coomer’s attorneys. “He’s out there suing people for money.”

Coomer filed suit against Lindell in April 2022. He accused Lindell of defaming him in a series of statements and media appearances, causing emotional and physical distress and costing him his career in election security.

Lindell has accused Coomer of treason and said he belongs in jail for being “part of the biggest crime this world has ever seen.” Lindell doubled down on his attacks against Coomer from the witness stand — but argued many of the more salacious statements were because Coomer sued him and Lindell was angry about the “lawfare.”

However, Coomer notes in his lawsuit that Lindell tied him to wider conspiracies about Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and called him “treasonous” as early as May 2021.

An attorney for Lindell, upon cross-examination, asked if Lindell was perhaps being hyperbolic with some of his rhetoric. Lindell responded that, “In my mind, it’s pretty big. Now, if that’s hyperbole, that’s subjective, I suppose.”

Coomer accuses Lindell of parroting remarks that started with Colorado-based podcaster Joe Oltmann and broadcasting them to a wider audience. Oltmann accused “Eric, the Dominion guy” of coordinating with forces opposed to President Donald Trump to deny his reelection in 2020.

Oltmann repeated the statements during a panel at Lindell’s “Cyber Syposium” that was held in South Dakota in August 2021. On the stand Monday, Lindell sought to distance himself from Oltmann’s statements then. Lindell said he had lost his voice, and left the organizing of the Oltmann’s panel to other people.

“Who put them up there, to this day, I could not tell you,” Lindell said.

“So that’s another thing you’re not taking responsibility for,” Commer’s attorney, Charles J. Cain, said. “You’re not taking responsibility for what you’ve done to Dr. Coomer, and you’re not taking responsibility for who got up on your stage.”