(Photo
by
JIM
WATSON/AFP
via
Getty
Images)
Mike
Lindell
ain’t
what
he
used
to
be.
Oh,
sure,
the
pillow
pumper’s
hair
is
still
the
color
of
a
burnt
sienna
Crayola,
and
his
mustache
would
make
a
pornstar
tumescent
with
rage.
But
a
lot
of
the
stuffing
has
come
out
of
that
cushion.
Yesterday,
Judge
Carl
Nichols
ordered
Lindell
to
pay
$56,369
in
sanctions
to
the
voting
machine
company
Smartmatic…
in
a
lawsuit
filed
against
Lindell
by
the
rival
company
Dominion
Voting
Systems.
It’s
a
bit
of
a
bet-you’re-wondering-how-I-got-here-record-scratch
moment.
Here’s
how
we
described
it
in
2022:
After
Dominion
Voting
Systems
sued
him
for
defamation
in
DC
federal
court,
Lindell
and
his
company
filed
a counterclaim against
Dominion
and
its
direct
competitor,
Smartmatic,
alleging
civil
RICO
and
defamation.
And
he
filed
it
in
the
District
of
Minnesota, obviously.US
District
Judge
Patrick
Schlitz declined Lindell’s
invitation
to
punish
Dominion
Voting
Systems
for
the
tort
of
suing
Mike
Lindell,
and
transferred
the
case
to
DC,
at
which
point
Smartmatic
warned
that
it
was
going
to
request
Rule
11
sanctions
against
Lindell
and
his
lawyers.
But
these
brain
geniuses
ignored
the
threat,
and
instead
dismissed
their
claims
against
Smartmatic,
then
added
the
company
back
as
third
party
defendant
in
the
pending
Dominion
case.
Only
this
time
on
top
of
the
RICO
libelslander
allegations,
Lindell
accused
Smartmatic
of
witness
tampering
via
cease
and
desist
letters
sent
to
people
making
false
claims
about
the
company.
Judge
Nichols,
a
Trump
appointee,
has
been
presiding
over
Dominion’s
defamation
suits
against
Sidney
Powell,
Lindell,
Rudy
Giuliani,
the
parent
company
of
One
America
News,
and
the
election-denying
Overstock
weirdo
Patrick
Byrne.
Unsurprisingly,
it’s
been
a
shitshow,
despite
the
court
consolidating
discovery
for
the
sake
of
efficiency
and
assigning
Magistrate
Judge
Moxila
Upadhyaya
so
oversee
it.
This
is
the
same
set
of
cases
where
Byrne
fired
his
competent
counsel
and
hired
election
denying
nutbag
Stefanie
Lambert,
a
Michigan
lawyer
under
indictment
for
tampering
with
election
machines.
Lambert
immediately
handed
protected
discovery
over
to
her
election
denying
buddies,
refused
to
stop
when
ordered,
got
herself
disqualified
from
the
case,
and
yet
continues
to
file
motions.
But
the
second
biggest
turd
in
the
bowl
has
been
Lindell,
who
not
only
tried
to
drag
Smartmatic
into
this
nonsense,
but
also
howled
that
he
was
entitled
to
stay
discovery
by
filing
an
interlocutory
appeal
to
the
DC
Circuit.
(He
was
not.)
Lindell’s
antics
with
regard
to
Smartmatic
got
him
sanctioned
back
in
May
of
2022,
with
Judge
Nichols
noting
that
“at
the
very
least
Lindell’s
claim
against
Smartmatic
under
the
Support
or
Advocacy
Clause
falls
on
the
frivolous
side
of
the
line
(other
claims
do
too).”
Specifically,
the
court
dinged
Lindell
for
accusing
Smartmatic
of
conspiring
with
its
own
lawyers
and
PR
firm
to
suppress
political
speech
by
filing
lawsuits
and
sending
out
cease
and
desist
letters.
You
can’t
conspire
with
your
own
agents
—
that
is
not
a
thing.
And,
as
the
court
notes,
the
Support
or
Advocacy
Clause
(42
U.S.
Code
§
1985(3))
was
a
Reconstruction
Era
statute
meant
to
protect
Black
voters.
He
did
not
add
that
it’s
utterly
filthy
to
use
it
as
a
means
to
defend
an
effort
to
disenfranchise
20
million
American
voters.
Smartmatic
invited
the
court
to
award
them
almost
$600,000,
most
of
their
legal
fees
themselves,
after
being
pointlessly
dragged
into
this
stupid
business.
But
in
the
end,
Judge
Nichols
elected
only
to
award
them
costs
for
the
Support
or
Advocacy
Clause
litigation,
roughly
ten
percent
of
their
original
ask.
This
case
is
set
to
go
to
trial
in
late
2025
(unless
he
gets
beamed
up
to
the
mothership
first).
At
which
point,
Lindell
is
probably
going
to
be
on
the
hook
for
a
lot
more
than
$56,000.
US
Dominion
Inc.
v.
MyPillow
Inc. [Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.