A judge has ordered MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell to pay $5 million to a man who participated in a “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” regarding the 2020 election, fulfilling a reward promise made by Lindell.
Lindell is among several election deniers with ties to former President Trump who have faced legal repercussions for promoting unfounded conspiracy theories or involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
Lindell organized a “cyber symposium” in 2021, challenging participants to disprove the validity of data he provided, which he claimed “unequivocally does NOT reflect information related to the November 2020 election,” according to the court ruling.
Robert Zeidman, a Republican who voted for Trump, testified that the files he received as part of the challenge appeared to be nonsensical strings of characters, as reported by the Washington Post.
A federal judge in Minnesota mandated on Wednesday that Lindell must pay the arbitration award, along with interest accruing from April 2023, within 30 days.
Zeidman provided a detailed 15-page report stating that each file he received lacked packet capture data, which captures internet data in real-time, the court decision noted. Zeidman’s pursuit of the reward spanned years and involved arbitration proceedings, with the court now affirming the panel’s conclusions.
