Jury finds MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell liable for defamation, orders him to pay $2.3 million in damages

Nick Coltrain and Seth Klamann, The Denver Post on Jun 16, 2025

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DENVER — Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and one of the most prominent conspiracy theorists about the 2020 presidential election, defamed a former Dominion Voting Systems director when he called him “treasonous,” a Colorado jury found Monday.

The jury ruled that Lindell and his media company, Frankspeech, must pay $2.3 million in damages for his attacks on Eric Coomer, the former director of security for Denver-based Dominion. The jury found that three of the 10 cited attacks leveled by Lindell or published on his platform amounted to defamation.

Coomer sued Lindell in U.S. District Court in Denver in April 2022. Coomer alleged the MyPillow CEO, who is a prominent backer of President Donald Trump and the president’s false claims that he won the 2020 election, defamed him when he called him a traitor, and claimed to have proof to that effect — in effect, directly accusing Coomer of committing a crime.

Coomer said Lindell’s attacks led to severe emotional and physical distress, death threats and the loss of his career in election security. Coomer asked for more than $2 million in economic damages and another $60 million in non-economic and punitive damages.

Charles J. Cain, one of Coomer’s attorneys, said after the ruling that there are “mixed emotions in the sense that he’s been through a lot, and he’s still going to be looking over his shoulder even after this one.” He added that he hopes the verdict serves as a deterrent against election workers being targeted, but says “we don’t believe this will stop the conspiracy theories.”

During closing arguments last week, Lindell’s attorneys rebutted the defamation claim by saying Lindell believed the allegations he was making, and that it was protected speech under the First Amendment. Defense attorney Jennifer DeMaster accused Coomer and his attorneys of acting as a “ministry of truth” that sought to police criticism.

“The only thing that matters is if Mr. Lindell believes these things are true,” DeMaster said during closing arguments. “That is the crux. That is the only thing that matters when it comes to our beloved First Amendment.”

Cain countered that Lindell stepped further than criticism of the government with his specific claims that Coomer committed treason and that Lindell had evidence of such crimes.

“(Coomer) was accused of a crime — not an alleged crime, as you see on the TV news broadcast, an actual crime. And (with the suggestion) that there was evidence for that crime,” Cain, an attorney for Coomer, told the jury in closing remarks Friday. “That is defamation.”

Lindell has pleaded poverty during the trial and claimed he spent his fortune hunting for evidence of election fraud and defending legal cases related to his accusations. While Lindell was found personally liable for the claims, his most prominent company, MyPillow, was not found guilty of defamation.

The claims of election rigging led to several high-profile lawsuits and big-dollar settlements. Fox News settled a lawsuit from Dominion for $800 million. The right-wing media organizations Newsmax and One America News each settled separate defamation lawsuits filed by Coomer.

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