In the latest legal development for conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, his company was ordered to pay attorney’s fees in the fallout from litigation over his challenge to disprove his 2020 election fraud claim.
Back in February, a federal judge approved a $5 million award against Lindell’s company in the so-called Prove Mike Wrong challenge. Lindell Management LLC had hosted a cyber symposium in which a participant could win $5 million if they proved that certain data Lindell had wasn’t valid election data. Robert Zeidman effectively succeeded in that task, and a federal judge ordered the award to be paid. Lindell Management has filed an appeal seeking to vacate the award.
Meanwhile, a federal magistrate judge on Thursday ordered the company to pay another, much smaller amount. The latest litigation concerned Zeidman’s request for attorney’s fees connected with bringing a motion to compel responses during discovery. Zeidman sought $12,800, but the court found he was entitled to $4,508, with the judge applying a lower hourly rate than Zeidman requested and noting that his discovery requests were overbroad and contributed to the costs he incurred.
Though it pales in comparison to the millions Lindell’s company was ordered to pay in the challenge loss, the MyPillow CEO may nonetheless appreciate the judge’s scrutiny of the fee award, especially if he loses his appeal. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for updates and expert analysis on the top legal stories. The newsletter will return to its regular weekly schedule when the Supreme Court’s next term kicks off in October.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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