'A hard pillow to swallow': Mike Lindell gets mocked after guilty verdict in federal case
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 4, 2023 (Image: Shutterstock)
On Monday, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell — a staunch far-right conspiracy theorist who continues to deny the outcome of the 2020 presidential election — was found guilty of defamation by a federal jury.
Lindell had used his various social media platforms to baselessly call former Dominion Voting Systems employee Eric Coomer a "traitor' who allegedly rigged the 2020 election in favor of former President Joe Biden. While Lindell was ordered to pay $2.3 million in damages, that amount was far less than the $62.7 million Coomer asked for, according to NBC 9 News reporter Kyle Clark. The pillow maker has been raising money to cover his legal fees on a far-right crowdfunding site, and has so far brought in more than $400,000 with a goal of $1.5 million.
"Lindell claims to have vaporized his $50-60M fortune pursuing election rigging claims and is $10M in debt," Clark tweeted. "Plaintiff’s attorney said there’s no way to know if he has money because they can’t see audited financial statements from his companies
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The verdict was met with widespread mockery and ridicule on social media by various journalists, commentators and others. Author Ben Greenman quipped that the MyPillow CEO's verdict was "a hard pillow to swallow." And photographer Frank Mitman joked that "the real purpose of the MyPillow is to cry into it."
"That's a lotta pillows," the Colorado Democratic Party posted to its official X account.
"Could not have happened to a more deserving guy," tweeted Atlantic contributor James Surowiecki. "Would have been nice if the damages had been greater, but this was a slam dunk defamation case, and it's very good the jury got it right."
Author Josh Gross wrote on X that the multiple defamation lawsuits against 2020 election deniers "keep proving the point that these people were full of crap." HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Date said the verdict was "good" and that "Lying and hurting people should have consequences."
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