My Pillow CEO and eternal election denier Mike Lindell has been ordered to shell out $5 million to an expert who debunked his data related to the 2020 election, CNN reported Thursday, citing a decision by an arbitration panel.
Lindell, an election conspiracy evangelist, vowed to award the multimillion-dollar sum to any cyber security expert who could disprove his data. An arbitration panel awarded Robert Zeidman, who has decades in software development experience, a $5 million payout on Wednesday after he sued Lindell over the sum.
“Based on the foregoing analysis, Mr. Zeidman performed under the contract, he proved the data Lindell LLC provided, and represented reflected information from the November 2020 election, unequivocally did not reflect November 2020 election data. Failure to pay Mr. Zeidman the $5 million prized was a breach of the contract, entitling him to recover,” ” the arbitration panel wrote in its decision, according to CNN.
The decision marks yet another blow to the pillow salesman’s credibility after he publicly touted unproven claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Lindell has also faced defamation suits related to his election claims.
“The lawsuit and verdict mark another important moment in the ongoing proof that the 2020 election was legal and valid, and the role of cybersecurity in ensuring that integrity,” said Brian Glasser, founder of Bailey & Glasser, LLP, who represented Zeidman. “Lindell’s claim to have 2020 election data has been definitively disproved.”
Lindell in 2021 convened a so-called “cyber symposium” in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that was supposed to reveal massive voter fraud. He invited journalists, politicians and cybersecurity experts to attend. But the event was a complete flop.
In an effort to get more traction in the media for his election fraud claims, Lindell also announced a “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge” – in which anyone who could prove his data was unrelated to the 2020 election could win the multimillion payout.
Zeidman signed up for the challenge, agreed to its contractual terms and discovered Lindell’s data to be largely nonsensical.
