My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell has been ordered to pay $5 million to an expert who debunked his data related to the 2020 election, according to a decision by an arbitration panel obtained by CNN. The latest development adds to the growing list of legal troubles the My Pillow CEO has faced since he publicly touted unproven claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Lindell had promised a multimillion-dollar payout to any cyber security expert who could disprove his data, which was exposed as nonsense by Robert Zeidman, a software development expert with decades of experience.
On Wednesday, the arbitration panel awarded Zeidman the $5 million payout after he sued Lindell for the sum. The panel's decision determined that Lindell had breached the contract and that Zeidman had proved the data Lindell LLC provided did not reflect election data from the 2020 election.
Lindell, however, has refused to accept the outcome, claiming that the case will "end up in court." He has also slammed the media for its coverage of his election conspiracies, and called for the elimination of electronic voting machines.
Lindell had convened a "cyber symposium" in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 2021, to showcase the data he claimed to have obtained related to the 2020 election. He had invited journalists, politicians and cybersecurity experts to attend.
Despite the arbitration panel's findings, Lindell remains adamant that his claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election are true. In a deposition obtained by CNN, he said that the symposium was organized to "get the big audience and have all the media there," and to prove that "they – the cyber guys – saying yes this data is from the 2020 election and you better look at how they intruded into our machines, our computers."
The My Pillow CEO has also recently told right-wing podcaster and former Trump administration official, Steve Bannon, that his company took out nearly $10 million in loans as he battles defamation suits related to his false election claims.
While the arbitration panel's decision is a clear victory for the truth, Lindell's refusal to accept the outcome and his continued insistence that the 2020 election was fraudulent is a troubling sign. As more and more evidence surfaces proving the contrary, one can only hope that the My Pillow CEO will come to accept the facts and move on.