A federal jury found Monday that businessman Mike Lindell defamed Eric Coomer, a former employee of Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, and is ordering him to pay roughly $2 million in damages.
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
That amount falls far short of the $62.7 million award requested by Coomer, in part because the jury rejected a number of the claims that Lindell and two of his companies, MyPillow and FrankSpeech, were responsible for comments made by others on platforms he controlled.
“We’re thrilled with the verdict,” said Coomer’s attorney, Charles Caine. He described having mixed emotions, “in the sense that (Coomer)’s been through a lot and he’s still going to be looking over his shoulder.”
“Generally, what this verdict says is … individuals who are singled out can get vindication in the courthouse. And hopefully this serves as deterrence for individuals working on our elections from being targeted.”
Caine said he doesn’t expect the verdict to stop broader election conspiracy theories from flying around, but hopes that it will keep people spreading them from targeting individuals by name.
In remarks after the verdict, Lindell focused on the fact the jury did not find his company, MyPillow, liable for defamation.
“This is a huge victory for our country,” he said in a live broadcast on his LindellTV platform from the courthouse steps. “The big win is: you cannot attack USA companies and expect it’s going to work.”
Lindell said he plans to appeal the damages award. He has claimed he’s currently in debt.
Lindell is among the chorus of conservative media fixtures who in the months and years after the 2020 election repeated the false claim that Coomer and Dominion used their election equipment to flip votes to Joe Biden. He also hosted an online news outlet, FrankSpeech, that amplified those claims.
Coomer has sued a number of conservative news outlets, right wing figures and President Trump’s campaign. As part of a settlement, Newsmax retracted its coverage of Coomer. Salem Media, the owner of 710 KNUS in Denver, also recently posted a retraction and apology to Coomer but has not announced a settlement.
For his case against Lindell, Coomer’s lawyers focused on 10 statements the MyPillow CEO made — or were made on FrankSpeech — they argued were defamatory. They also tried to show Lindell had opportunities to doubt or reconsider the claims made about Coomer, but continued to publicly insist that Coomer helped steal the 2020 election.
In the end, the jury found just three of the statements — two made by Lindell and one made by someone else at an event broadcast on FrankSpeech — met the bar for defamation.
In one of the defamatory statements, made May 9, 2021, Lindell urged Coomer to turn himself in and inform on the alleged election-stealing operation.
“I mean, you are disgusting, and you are treasonous. You are a traitor to the United States of America,” said Lindell.
In a second defamatory comment made after Coomer filed his lawsuit, Lindell lashed out again.
“Eric Coomer, you are a criminal. Eric Coomer, your lawyers better look out. I’m not putting up with this,” he said in an interview on FrankSpeech. “You’ve been a part of the biggest crime this world has ever seen.”
Lindell’s attorneys argued Coomer’s reputation was already deeply damaged well before their client ever mentioned him. And on the stand, Lindell continued to insist he believes in Coomer’s wrongdoing. Legally, believing a false claim is true is a defense against defamation. He’s also insisted that many of his remarks about Coomer were about the defamation lawsuit itself and not election stealing.
Coomer’s name entered the echo chamber of post-election conspiracy theories in November, 2020. A Colorado-based podcaster, Joe Oltmann, claimed that he’d snuck onto a call by radical leftist protesters before the election and heard someone identified as “Eric, the Dominion guy” reassure the other participants that he’d guaranteed Trump would not win. Oltmann, who has never provided a recording of the call, went on to conclude the speaker was Coomer, a claim he made widely on right-wing media after the election.
Coomer said the continued harassment and threats from Lindell and others forced him to leave a 15-year career in an industry he loved and that the real-world consequences of their falsehoods have been devastating.
Appearing Monday ahead of the verdict on his latest online platform, LindellTV, Lindell struck a defiant tone as the jury deliberated.
“No matter what comes out of this courthouse, I’m not stopping,” he said of his questions about what he perceives as voting irregularities across the nation.
Lindell complained that he and his lawyers weren’t allowed to present a full defense, including election conspiracies. He argued that his remarks about Coomer should be protected by free speech and that legal challenges to the contrary amount to attempted censorship.
But Lindell conceded he wasn’t feeling confident about the outcome of the case. He said the questions asked by the jury were “kind of discouraging.”
“We need a win here,” he said.
The Colorado Sun’s Jesse Paul contributed to this story.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.