SCOTUS Won't Block Defamation Suit Against Lindell

In February 2021, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said he was "very happy" to be sued by Dominion Voting Systems over his claims that the company rigged its machines to deliver an election victory for President Biden in 2020. The $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit is proceeding, but Lindell is apparently no longer happy about it. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Lindell seeking to block the case Monday, USA Today reports. Lindell asked the top court to intervene so he could avoid a "long and expensive" court case. He argued that Dominion counts as a "public figure" and that its lawsuit hadn't met the standard for defamation because Dominion hadn't shown that he knew his statements were false or he had acted with "reckless disregard for the truth."

In court filings, Lindell's lawyers said he continues to assert that his statements "regarding Dominion, its voting machines, and the integrity of the tabulation were, and continue to be, valid, accurate, and true," NBC reports. The Supreme Court did not disclose its vote count, reports CNN. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson did not take part in the court's consideration of the case. The decision means the lawsuit, one of several the company filed as it pushed against false claims about its voting machines, can go ahead.

Lindell was appealing a ruling from a lower federal court. "As a preliminary matter, a reasonable juror could conclude that the existence of a vast international conspiracy that is ignored by the government but proven by a spreadsheet on an internet blog is so inherently improbable that only a reckless man would believe it," US District Judge Carl Nichols wrote in his August 2021 ruling. He said the company's cases against Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani could also proceed. (More Mike Lindell stories.)