Dominion Voting Systems followed through with a previous threat on Monday by filing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell over his claims of election fraud involving the company.
In the lawsuit, Dominion alleges that the self-made millionaire and Trump ally exploited a conspiracy theory that Dominion's voting machines were hacked by foreign agents and Democratic Party officials to rig the election for President Joe Biden in order to "sell more pillows."
"After hitting the jackpot with Donald Trump's endorsement for MyPillow and after a million-dollar bet on Fox News ads had paid out handsome returns, Michael Lindell exploited another chance to boost sales: marketing MyPillow to people who would tune in and attend rallies to hear Lindell tell the 'Big Lie' that Dominion had stolen the 2020 election," the lawsuit alleges.
"Lindell — a talented salesman and former professional card counter — sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows," the lawsuit continues. "MyPillow's defamatory marketing campaign — with promo codes like 'FightforTrump,' '45,' 'Proof,' and 'QAnon' —has increased MyPillow sales by 30-40% and continues duping people into redirecting their election-lie outrage into pillow purchases."
The company vowed in the 115-page document that, through the ensuing legal battle, it "will prove that there is no real evidence supporting the Big Lie." Dominion added that it ultimately brought the action to vindicate the company's rights and recover damages incurred from Lindell's election fraud claims.
Lindell responded to news of the lawsuit in a phone interview with CNBC, during which he said, "I'm very happy that they finally got that suit filed" and added that his message to Dominion is "thank you for finally getting this done, because it'll be back in the limelight now."
Lindell also countered Dominion's accusation that he profited from challenging the election results.
"They also say that I benefited, or that my I used this for MyPillow, to advertise, and that's not true," he said. "I lost 22 retailers. It's been cancel culture for MyPillow."
Last month, after Dominion threatened to sue Lindell, the pillow magnate defiantly urged the company to file the lawsuit.
"I want Dominion to put up their lawsuit because we have 100% evidence that China and other countries used their machines to steal the election," he said at the time.
Lindell has been one of the most outspoken challengers of the 2020 election, claiming in a flurry of media appearances and social media posts, including a three-hour docu-movie — since removed by YouTube — that Dominion was manipulated to skew results in favor of President Biden.
Editorial note: In the interest of full disclosure, MyPillow is a current advertiser on a program that appears on BlazeTV.
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