Washington (CNN) My pillow is the CEO Mike Lindell An expert who disputed his data on the 2020 election has been ordered to pay $5 million, according to a jury verdict obtained by CNN.
Lindel, a purveyor of election conspiracies, has promised a multi-million dollar payout to a cyber security expert who falsifies his data. A jury on Wednesday awarded $5 million to Robert Zeitman, who has decades of software development experience, after suing Lindel.
CNN has obtained arbitration documents and video depositions, including Lindel’s deposition, related to the dispute.
“Based on the foregoing analysis, Mr. Zeitman performed under the contract,” the jury wrote in its decision. “He proved the data provided by Lindel LLC, and he proved the information reflected the November 2020 election, did not unequivocally reflect the November 2020 election data. Failure to pay the $5 million gift to Mr. Zeidman was a breach of contract, entitling him to recovery.”
The decision marks another blow to the MyPillow CEO’s credibility after he publicly revealed unproven claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Lindel also faced defamation lawsuits related to his election claims.
“The case and ruling mark another important moment in the ongoing demonstration that the 2020 election is legal and valid, and the role of cybersecurity in ensuring that integrity,” said Brian Glaser, founder of Bailey & Glaser, LLP, which represented Zeitman. “Lindall’s claim to have 2020 election data has been firmly refuted.”
In a brief phone interview with CNN, Lindell said “this will end up in court” and slammed the media and emphasized the need to eliminate electronic voting machines.
Lindell convened a so-called “Cyber Symposium” in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 2021, designed to showcase data he allegedly obtained related to the 2020 election. He invited journalists, politicians and cyber security experts to attend.
“The symposium was to get a big audience and have all the media there, and then they — the cyber guys — yeah, this data is from the 2020 election, and you take a good look at how they infiltrated our machines, our computers and inside. That was the whole purpose,” Lindel said. said in a statement obtained by CNN.
He also announced that Mike’s prove-false challenge — anyone who proves his data is unrelated to the 2020 election could win millions — could gain more media traction for his election fraud claims.
“I thought, if I put a $5 million challenge out there, it would get news, and I did,” Lindell said at the deposition. “So, you got some attention.”
Zeidman signed up to the challenge, agreed to its contractual terms and found that Lindel’s data was largely nonsense.
Although Lindell made various outlandish and unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election, such as insisting foreign governments infiltrate voting machines, the jury focused its verdict solely on whether the data Lindell provided to experts was relevant to the 2020 election.
“It is not necessary for contestants to prove election interference. Therefore, contestants’ task is to prove that the data is not valid from the November 2020 election,” the jury wrote.
“The panel was not asked to decide whether China interfered in the 2020 election. The panel was not asked to decide whether Lindel LLC had data proving such interference, or whether Lindel LLC had election data,” the jury says. group. “The focus of the decision is on the 11 files provided to Mr. Zeitman in the context of competition rules.”
The panel’s decision was to check each of the data files provided by Zeidman and repeatedly determine that the data was unrelated to the 2020 election.
It’s unclear when Zeitman will be able to collect his payout. Lindell recently told right-wing podcaster and former Trump administration official Steve Bannon that his firm had taken on nearly $10 million in loans as it fought defamation lawsuits related to his false election claims.
During his deposition, Lindell said he never worried that someone might win the challenge.
“No, because they had to show that it wasn’t in 2020, it was,” Lindell said with a laugh.
