Mike Lindell Defamation Trial: Lindell Takes the Stand

The defamation trial against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, filed by former Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer, went into its second week on June 9, with Lindell himself testifying on the stand both Monday and Tuesday.

Walking into the Alfred A. Arraj Courthouse in downtown Denver for the second week felt like a collegial reunion. Along with the lawyers involved in the case, the usual crowd of misfit toys was present: Lindell's wife, Kendra, and a dozen-plus largely elderly supporters, most of whom can pontificate at length on the Big Lie; conspiracy theorists looking for a side conversation; unmarked reporters from outlets spanning from the AP to His Glory TV; a handful of lawyers and law student interns observing the trial; and Kyle Clark, whom Lindell would soon call a traitor who's committed crimes against humanity. (Will you be the next plaintiff, Kyle?)

Coomer attorney Charlie Cain was blunt in his opening question to Lindell: "You take no responsibility for what you've done to Dr. Coomer's life, do you?"

"I did not do anything to Dr. Coomer," Lindell replied.

Yet Lindell also said he stood by his words of March 2023 calling Coomer a criminal, and through his testimony would double down on calling Coomer "treasonous" and "a traitor" — but Lindell claims his pejoratives aimed at Coomer had nothing to do with accusing him of election rigging or the allegations made by Joe Oltmann that Coomer admitted election fraud on an antifa conference call before the November 2020 election.

Lindell now launched a new conspiracy theory to fight the claim that he'd defamed Coomer, destroying his reputation. Instead, Lindell alleged that he'd never heard of Coomer until he believed that a settlement in a lawsuit Coomer filed against the conservative news outlet Newsmax included a provision to keep Lindell off of Newsmax's airwaves.

"Everywhere I went, I was blocked," Lindell said. "Coomer is one of those blockers going to Newsmax and making deals to block me, when I'd been trying for five months to save our country."

To elaborate: Although Oltmann had been making claims about Coomer rigging the election since November 9, 2020, in testimony Lindell now claimed he first heard the name on May 9, 2021, from Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy. On May 8 of that year, Newsmax had aired a retraction and apology to Coomer as part of a settlement agreement in a suit Coomer had filed against Newsmax for defamation.

On the stand Monday, Lindell claimed that he believed part of that settlement agreement included a condition imposed by Coomer precluding Lindell from appearing on Newsmax as a guest, and he subsequently lost $22 million in MyPillow sales. Ruddy informed him he couldn't be on the network any longer, Lindell said, prompting his May 9, 2021, tirade against Coomer on Lindell's FrankSpeech streaming platform — the first instance that plaintiffs allege Lindell personally defamed Coomer.

"Eric Coomer, if I'm you right now, I am, instead of going over and making deals at Newsmax, if I'm you, I'm turning myself in and turning in the whole operation so maybe, just maybe, that you get immunity and you only get to do, I don't know, ten, twenty years. I mean, you are disgusting, and you are treasonous. You are a traitor to the United States of America," Lindell raged in the clip showed in the courtoom.

Lindell's defense rests largely on this premise: Lindell believed Coomer kept him off of Newsmax's programs, and so called him treasonous and a traitor.

But Coomer's attorneys also played a February 2021 clip of Lindell appearing on Newsmax prior to the settlement and yelling over two anchors while decrying electronic voting machines. One anchor attempts to read a disclaimer that reads, "We at Newsmax have not been able to verify those allegations," but that anchor walks off when Lindell continues yelling, and Lindell's feed is soon cut off.

"Your family was telling you this was a bad idea?" Coomer's attorney asked Lindell.

"Because of the threats, my daughter called me in tears and said, 'Can you please stop?' I said, 'I can't, or we won't have a country anymore, we won't have the American dream,'" Lindell answered.

Lindell not only supports Donald Trump but seems to be a devotee of The Weave, the president's stream-of-consciousness patter, and throughout his two days of testimony, Judge Nina Y. Wang repeatedly sustained objections from the plaintiffs and admonished Lindell to simply answer the question he was asked.

Lindell defended his investigation into election fraud, saying he'd spent up to $40 million and hired more than thirty experts in his quest. "I probably did more due diligence than anyone ever in history," Lindell told jurors.

Despite his protestations that he'd never accused Coomer of election rigging, Lindell was defiant in addressing Coomer attorney Cain. "You're covering up a crime to our country. You're covering it up and I don't understand why," he said.

Lindell then directed his words to Coomer, who was sitting a dozen feet away: "I didn't do anything to you, sir. You're part of the biggest cover-up of the biggest crime the world has ever seen."

Lindell's lawyers took over on cross-examination near the end of Monday, allowing Lindell to plow through his origin story of being a crack cocaine addict, and talk about the genesis of MyPillow.

On Tuesday morning, the lawyers argued over admitting portions of several purported election-fraud documentary films before Lindell resumed his testimony with his own lawyer questioning him.

Lindell elaborated on "blockers" and how, in his view, Coomer became his "number one" blocker after Lindell believed Coomer kept him off of Newsmax.

Lindell estimated he'd called between fifty and a hundred people traitors because they were "blockers," and said his remarks about Coomer going to prison were "hyper, hyperb, whatever that word is," grasping for the term "hyperbole."

As his attorney's cross-examination was coming to an end, Lindell smeared members of the press in the room, directing his ire at Kyle Clark and Marissa Solomon of 9News, calling them traitors who've committed crimes against humanity.

Lindell swiped at Coomer and his team as well. "They attacked me personally," he said, and told jurors that during a break Coomer had called him a "piece of shit" near the courtroom restrooms.

"I'd probably still call him and his team criminals for what they've done to me," Lindell said.

As Tuesday drew to a close, plaintiffs introduced a video deposition by Newsmax's Chris Ruddy, who said that Lindell's "name never came up" in the settlement negotiations with Coomer's team back in 2021, denying Lindell's allegation that Coomer struck a deal to keep Lindell off Newsmax's airwaves.

Lindell's trial is scheduled to continue through the end of the week.