DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan on Tuesday blocked an attempt by MyPillow founder Mike Lindell to obtain an array of election records from Kent County and required Lindell to pay the county's legal fees.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Phillip Green in Michigan's Western District issued his order after a hearing Tuesday on a motion to block the subpoena from the office of Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons. Green cited "reasons stated on the record" during the hearing for his decision to impose sanctions on Lindell and MyPillow.
Lindell and MyPillow will have to pay Kent County's attorney’s fees and other costs incurred in bringing the motion to block the subpoena, according to the judge's order.
In an Oct. 4 petition, the Kent County clerk's office said Lindell was seeking "every conceivable record from the 2020 general election."
Lindell, who has repeatedly made false statements about the 2020 presidential election, sought the information from Kent County in September as part of a court case in which Dominion Voting Systems sued him for defamation. Kent County uses Dominion election equipment but is not otherwise involved in the defamation suit.
Lindell was misusing the privilege of issuing subpoenas to third parties to harass and unduly burden the clerk, lawyer Madelaine Lane had argued on Kent County's behalf.
Democrat Joe Biden won Michigan's 2020 presidential election by 154,000 votes, or 3 percentage points. But Lindell and other supporters of Republican Donald Trump have maintained false claims that the election was "stolen."
Kent County, where Lyons is the Republican clerk, is Michigan's fourth largest county. Biden won Kent County 52% to 46%.
Dominion has accused Lindell and pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani of defamation for claiming that the election was “stolen" and criticizing the company's equipment, according to The Associated Press. Dominion has sought $1.3 billion in damages.
Lindell wanted the Kent County clerk to produce "'forensic copies' of the electronic data storage drives from all the voting machines and servers in the county," according to the clerk's filing.
———
(Detroit News staff writer Rob Snell contributed to this story.)
———
