Mike Lindell’s decision to represent himself in a multimillion-dollar defamation suit is a big mistake and could cost him dearly, a prominent trial lawyer has said.
The Trump supporter and businessman, who is struggling financially amid a sea of legal troubles, is set to defend himself in the lawsuit taken by the companies that supplied the voting machines for the 2020 presidential election.
Lindell claimed they had rigged the election for President Biden, a conspiracy theory repeatedly rejected in court and by independent experts.
His long-term lawyers, Parker Daniels Kibort, withdrew from the defamation cases brought by Dominion Voting Systems, its competitor Smartmatic, and Eric Coomer, a former Dominion employee whom Lindell publicly accused of rigging the election. Parker Daniels said it was owed millions of dollars by the businessman, as reported by The New York Times.
Neama Rahmani, president of the West Coast Trial Lawyers law firm, said that Lindell is making a major error in representing himself.
“Lindell is making a mistake. He’s not a lawyer and has never tried a case. Dominion’s attorneys are going to run circles around him.
“Adding the fact that he has no filter and isn’t careful about what he says, which got him here in the first place, he’s likely to turn off the judge and jury. This all has the makings of a large judgement against Lindell,” he said.
Lindell recently told Newsweek that he hasn’t been able to pay his legal team for the past couple of months.
“These lawyers were courageous,” Lindell said. “They took on a case where every other lawyer in this country is afraid to take on any case against the electronic voting machines and the evil that’s out there. This was a great group of attorneys… and they need to get paid; and if there’s no money to pay them, they can’t keep going,” he said.
Newsweek has emailed MyPillow for comment.
Lindell does not have a good track record of keeping his cool when dealing with opposing lawyers in the defamation case.
He repeatedly and angrily lashing out at lawyers for former Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer in multiple depositions this year, once over an attorney’s suggestion that Lindell fielded “lumpy pillow calls” and on another occasion he called one of the lawyers an “a**hole.”
Lawyers for Coomer filed a motion last month asking a judge to sanction Lindell and force him to be deposed in court after three depositions in the case quickly went off the rails.
In the first deposition, on March 8, Lindell exploded in rage and hurled insults toward Cain after he suggested that MyPillow had received “lumpy pillow calls.”
“No, they’re not lumpy pillows, that’s not what they call on,” Lindell said. “When you say lumpy pillows, now you’re an a***hole, you got that? You’re an a**hole is what you are!”
Lindell’s lawyer briefly attempted to intervene but was cut off by his client saying, “No, he’s an a**hole, he’s an ambulance-chasing a**hole!”
“That’s what you are,” Lindell continued, addressing Cain. “Lumpy pillows, kiss my a**! Put that in your book … Nobody calls because of a lumpy pillow.”
“Obviously you don’t have a My Pillow, too,” he added. “You don’t, do you?”