MyPillow Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mike Lindell must face a defamation suit filed by a voting machine maker that was falsely accused of participating in a conspiracy to rig the 2020 election against former President Donald Trump.
A federal judge in Minneapolis on Monday denied MyPillow and Lindell’s motion to dismiss the suit by Smartmatic Corp. U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright said there was a “wealth of information” that could have tipped off the defendants that the conspiracy theory was false, including individual states’ election reports and public statements by election officials.
Wright said Smartmatic had reasonably alleged that Lindell’s false statements about the company were made with “actual malice,” a key threshold for a defamation claim to survive against a public figure, which under U.S. law includes corporations.
