The Volokh Conspiracy

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Defamation

Dominion Seeks to Beach the Kraken, Prompts Pillow Fight (UPDATED)

Threats of defamation suits have prompted corrective statements on Fox and Newsmax, but My Pillow CEO wants to fight.

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U.S. Dominion Inc., the parent company of Dominion Voting Systems, is striking back against those who have claimed that Dominion voting systems were used to help "steal" the presidential election from Donald Trump. Beginning in December, Dominion began sending cease-and-desist and record retention letters to those who have spread anti-Dominion election fraud theories. Earlier this month, Dominion filed a defamation suit against #Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell.

The evidence supporting the various anti-Dominion claims is virtually non-existent, and Dominion is represented by one of the best defamation plaintiffs' lawyers in the country, Thomas Clare, and the threat of lawsuits has prompted many who spread disinformation about Dominion to recant. Both Fox News and Newsmax aired corrective segments on shows that had aired anti-Dominion claims, and the American Thinker blog—which has published numerous posts spreading debunked and unfounded election fraud claims—published a groveling statement confessing that the various anti-Dominion claims "are completely false and have no basis in fact."

This week, Dominion's attorneys sent a cease-and-desist and record preservation letter to My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, demanding that he stop repeating false and unfounded allegations against Dominion and retain communications with others about such claims. Reached for comment by Axios, Lindell reportedly responded "I want Dominion to put up their lawsuit because we have 100% evidence that China and other countries used their machines to steal the election."

[Update: Lindell gave a similar statement to the New York Times: ""I would really welcome them to sue me because I have all the evidence against them. . . . They sent this letter a couple of weeks ago. They're lying, they're nervous because I have all the evidence on them."]

Time will tell whether Lindell maintains this position once he has spoken with his lawyers. If so, we may be in for more than a pillow fight. Dominion's suit against Sidney Powell seeks $1.3 billion. I doubt they would sue Lindell for anything less.

UPDATE: An NBC News report on Lindell's accusations, and how they have prompted some retailers to stop stocking My Pillow-brand pillows, includes this remarkable tidbit:

In his email to NBC News, Lindell said: "All the evidence against Dominion is before the Supreme Court. … China and others used the machines to corrupt our election! Here is one page of the proof."

The email did not include an attachment. When asked if he had mistakenly omitted it, Lindell sent another email with an empty attachment and a third with screenshots of illegible text.