Dominion wants to advance its $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit againstMyPillow CEOMike Lindell .- It says the company should be held responsible for Lindell's election conspiracy theories.
- Dominion pointed out that Lindell is widely known as "the MyPillow guy."
Attorneys for
In a motion on Friday, Dominion argued that MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's falsehood-filled rants about the election were made in his capacity as the head of the company and were meant to juice the company's profits.
"Now, MyPillow claims that 'the MyPillow Guy' was not speaking for MyPillow when he gave speeches at MyPillow-sponsored rallies in Washington, D.C. or when he otherwise exploited election lies to market MyPillow products - which could be purchased on MyPillow's website using promo codes like 'FightforTrump,' 'QAnon,' 'Q,' and 'Proof,'" attorneys for Dominion wrote.
Dominion filed its lawsuit against both Lindell and MyPillow in February. The election-technology company argued that Lindell had sought to boost MyPillow's profits by integrating bogus election-fraud claims with an extensive marketing campaign for the pillow company. Lindell, a staunch supporter of former President
In April, MyPillow filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the company shouldn't be held responsible for Lindell's claims that Dominion had secret ties to foreign governments and that those claims didn't amount to defamation.
In its new filing, Dominion argued that Lindell waged a "defamatory marketing campaign" in his capacity as "the MyPillow guy." The company asked US District Judge Carl John Nichols to move the lawsuit forward.
"The law is clear that corporations can be held liable for the defamatory statements their employees make within the scope of their employment and in furtherance of the company's business," Dominion's attorneys wrote. "And the Complaint plainly alleges facts from which a jury could infer that Lindell - who is to this day the president, CEO, and spokesman of MyPillow and who is widely known as 'the MyPillow Guy' - was acting as the company's agent when he exploited lies about Dominion to market MyPillow products."
MyPillow previously argued that Lindell sincerely believed his false claims about the election. In an interview with Insider earlier this year, Lindell said he'd lost tens of millions of dollars in retail partnerships following his conspiratorial claims - and he held that up as evidence that he was doing what was good for the country.
Lindell has continued to levy falsehoods about Dominion in interviews and rallies, and he filed a countersuit against the company.
In its new filing, Dominion argued that Lindell's persistence in pushing conspiracy theories proved that he acted "recklessly" with "actual malice" - a legal threshold for successful defamation lawsuits - because he ignored all evidence that they were false.
"Despite repeatedly being put on specific written notice of the publicly available facts and evidence disproving their claims and the obvious reasons to doubt the veracity of their sources, Defendants continued making false and defamatory statements about Dominion that had been rebutted by the evidence that had been sent to them," Dominion's attorneys argued. "In sum, this is one of the clearest cases of actual malice imaginable."
Since the election, Lindell has been entangled in several lawsuits. He's also suing the Daily Mail over a story that claimed he'd dated the "30 Rock" star Jane Krakowski, which both he and Krakowski denied.
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