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Mike Lindell found guilty of defaming Dominion voting employee

ataraxia

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"A federal jury in Colorado on Monday found that one of the nation's most prominent election conspiracy theorists, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, defamed a former employee of a leading voting equipment company after the 2020 presidential election.

The employee, Eric Coomer, sued after Lindell called him a traitor and accusations about him stealing the election were streamed on Lindell's online media platform."

Mike's defense strategy? That he listened to known criminals and liars, and didn't bother to check things himself:

"Lindell said his beliefs that the 2020 election was tainted by fraud were influenced by watching the 2020 HBO documentary "Kill Chain" and by the views of Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. In an interview for a documentary Lindell made in 2021, Flynn said foreign interference was going to happen in U.S. elections, and Lindell said he had no reason to doubt the claim since Flynn had worked for both political parties in intelligence."

FAFO, Mike.

So now, what is Trump's punishment for fabricating these dangerous lies to undermine American democracy? Oh yeah I forgot: the American people WANT a known convicted criminal running their country.
 
Did Mike not get the memo? He posted this 15 minutes ago.

 

Good. **** Mr. MyPillow.
 
My greatest sadness over this is that so few reckless and deliberate lies actually get punished. Todays version of "Free Speech", where even the worst and most deliberately damaging of lies are protected, is not what I envisage when I think of what protecting free speech should be trying to achieve. I am glad to see Rudi, Pillow Man, Fox, and NewsMax etc all losing defamations cases in court (or making pre trial settlements), but compared to the massive harm caused by their lying it isn't nearly enough to offset the public harm they caused.
 
One major correction....to the bolded: Not all of the American people, only the magats. The rest of us American people want trumpdump GONE.
 
Lindell's defence seem to have been based on that he didn't know that what he said were false. This is the defence you have to go with in defamation suits. You are allowed to have opinions, but not knowingly lie about another person. I think the defense failed because he can't point out to Michael Flynn or anyone else pointing the finger at Coomer and accusing him of treason before Lindell. Thus Lindell is the origin of this claim, and is the one making baseless accusations. A defamation case can also be based on that the defamer should have known what he said was false, as in maybe he wasn't knowingly lying, but with the information availiable he should have known the accusation made can't be true. Coomer's lawyers state that either Lindell has to have known he was lying, or that he should have known the accusations he made can't possibly be true. Lindell needed to have proved he was misled and reasonably convinced somehow that the accusations he made could have been true with the information at hand. In that he failed. If Coomer had been pointed out personally by someone else before Lindell, Lindell's argument would probably have worked.
 
Thoughts and prayers to the pillow dude. It's unfortunate that he no longer has the cash flow to purchase a pardon from Donald.
 
Did Mike not get the memo? He posted this 15 minutes ago.

I guess now he downshifts:

"Like Job, God is allowing Satan to test me but like Job He shall bring me a mighty victory against mine enemies! You can share in the victory - use the code MAGAJOB1776 at checkout and receive 5% off your next MyPillow purchase!"
 
"...Lindell's attorneys argued that Coomer's reputation was already in tatters by the time Lindell mentioned him..."



Did they really think that argument was going to carry any weight? Good lord....

"Your Honor, my client only defamed the plaintiff after many, many other people had already defamed him!"


 
Too many people voted on paper ballots during the 2020 election for this wild conspiracy theory to have happened. Too bad Lindell never knew that.
 

It is a defense against a claim of defamation to show that the plaintiff is "defamation proof" - that their character and reputation are so low with the general public that they cannot be substantively defamed.

Clearly, it did not work in this case.
 
It is a defense against a claim of defamation to show that the plaintiff is "defamation proof" - that their character and reputation are so low with the general public that they cannot be substantively defamed.

Clearly, it did not work in this case.

Oh, I understand they were trying to show a lack of damages - I just think tacit admission to the charge in making that argument is not a great look. I'm not a lawyer, though.
 
Oh, I understand they were trying to show a lack of damages - I just think tacit admission to the charge in making that argument is not a great look. I'm not a lawyer, though.

It's not a great look, particularly in these circumstances - and a pretty tough argument to make in front of a jury.

But you work with what you have, I guess.
 
Oh, I understand they were trying to show a lack of damages - I just think tacit admission to the charge in making that argument is not a great look. I'm not a lawyer, though.
In their circumstances, probably their best option. It was objectively true that Lindell made defamatory statements. What else were they gonna say? "Um actually that was an alien clone that said it?"
 
This guy got any money left?
 
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