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Case 1:21-cv-00445 Document 1 Filed 02/22/21 Page 1 of 115

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

) US DOMINION, INC., DOMINION ) VOTING SYSTEMS, INC., and ) DOMINION VOTING SYSTEMS ) CORPORATION ) c/o Cogency Global ) 1025 Vermont Ave, NW, Ste. 1130 ) Washington, DC 20005, ) ) Plaintiffs, ) )

) MY PILLOW, INC. and ) MICHAEL J. LINDELL ) 343 E 82nd Str #102 ) Chaska, MN 55318, ) ) ) )

COMPLAINT AND DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL

1. After hitting the jackpot with Donald Trump’s endorsement for MyPillow and after a million-dollar bet on Fox News ads had paid out handsome returns, Michael Lindell exploited another chance to boost sales: marketing MyPillow to people who would tune in and attend rallies to hear Lindell tell the “Big Lie” that Dominion had stolen the 2020 election. As when MyPillow previously faced legal action for deceptive marketing campaigns, Lindell knew there was no real “evidence” supporting his claims. And he is well aware of the independent audits and paper ballot recounts conclusively disproving the Big Lie. But Lindell—a talented salesman and former professional card counter—sells the lie to this day because the lie sells pillows. MyPillow’s defamatory marketing campaign—with promo codes like “FightforTrump,” “45,” “Proof,” and “QAnon”—has increased MyPillow sales by 30-40% and continues duping people into redirecting their election-lie outrage into pillow purchases.

) Case No.

Defendants.

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2. Bipartisan election officials, judges, 59 election security experts, Attorney General Bill Barr, Trump appointee Chris Krebs, Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Colorado’s former Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams, and others have rebutted Lindell’s false claims about Dominion.1

3. Most importantly though, paper ballots are the hard evidence conclusively disproving Lindell’s claims. If the vote tallies in Dominion machines had been manipulated, the machine tallies would not match the number of votes on the paper ballots. In fact, they do match, as independent audits and hand recounts have repeatedly proven. The contrary “evidence” put forward by Lindell’s allies—including Sidney Powell, L. Lin Wood, and others—was deliberately misrepresented, manufactured, cherry-picked, and sourced from con artists and conspiracy theorists who were judicially determined to be “wholly unreliable.” Lindell knows all of this because Dominion wrote to him multiple times, put him on formal written notice of the facts, and told him that Dominion employees were receiving death threats because of the lies.

4. Instead of retracting his lies, Lindell—a multimillionaire with a nearly unlimited ability to broadcast his preferred messages on conservative media—whined that he was being “censored” and “attacked” and produced a “docu-movie” featuring shady characters and fake documents sourced from dark corners of the internet.

5. Through discovery, Dominion will prove that there is no real evidence supporting the Big Lie. Dominion brings this action to vindicate the company’s rights, to recover damages, to seek a narrowly tailored injunction, to stand up for itself and its employees, and to stop Lindell and MyPillow from further profiting at Dominion’s expense.

1 “Dominion” refers to Plaintiffs, US Dominion, Inc. and its subsidiaries, Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation.

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PARTIES

6. Plaintiff US Dominion, Inc. is a for-profit Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Denver, Colorado.

7. Plaintiff Dominion Voting Systems, Inc. is a for-profit Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Denver, Colorado.

8. Plaintiff Dominion Voting Systems Corporation is a for-profit Ontario corporation with its principal place of business in Toronto, Ontario.

9. Defendant My Pillow, Inc. (“MyPillow”) is a for-profit Minnesota corporation with its principal place of business in Chaska, Minnesota.

10. Defendant Michael J. Lindell is the founder and CEO of MyPillow. Lindell is a resident of Minnesota. At all relevant times during the defamatory marketing campaign at issue in this case, Lindell was acting as MyPillow’s agent.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

11. This Court has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1332 because there is complete diversity of citizenship between Plaintiffs and Defendants, and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000.00, exclusive of interest and costs.

12. This Court has personal jurisdiction over all Defendants pursuant to § 13-423 of the District of Columbia Code because Lindell, who at all relevant times during the defamatory marketing campaign at issue in this case acted as an agent for MyPillow: (i) transacted business within the District of Columbia, including by sponsoring and marketing MyPillow at rallies in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 2020, January 5, 2021, and January 6, 2021; by regularly advertising MyPillow at these events and through internet, television, and radio ads directed at residents of the District of Columbia; and by selling MyPillow products to residents of the District of Columbia; (ii) caused tortious injury by acts committed within the District of Columbia,

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including and specifically by making false and defamatory statements about Dominion at rallies in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 2020 and January 5, 2021, and during media appearances from within the District of Columbia; and (iii) caused tortious injury by acts committed outside the District of Columbia while regularly doing business within, engaging in persistent conduct within, and deriving substantial revenue from services rendered within the District of Columbia.

13. Requiring Defendants to litigate these claims in the District of Columbia does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice and is permitted by the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution. Dominion’s claims arise in part from defamatory statements that Lindell, while acting as an agent for MyPillow, made about Dominion from within the District of Columbia. Defendants avail themselves of numerous privileges in the District of Columbia, including those set forth above.

14. Venue is proper in this Court under 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b) because a substantial part of the events giving rise to the claims in this Complaint occurred in this District and, as discussed above, because Defendants are subject to the Court’s personal jurisdiction in this District.

FACTUAL ALLEGATIONS

Through Aggressive Marketing, Mike Lindell Builds a Multimillion-Dollar Company

15. In 2004, Lindell founded the MyPillow company, which he later incorporated as My Pillow, Inc. A talented salesman, Lindell personally starred in MyPillow infomercials, which claimed that MyPillow would help people suffering from fibromyalgia, insomnia, migraines and headaches, sleep apnea, snoring, TMJ, and restless leg syndrome—claims that prosecutors alleged

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were “untrue or misleading.”2 Rather than defending the truthfulness of MyPillow’s claims in court, Lindell opted to pay $995,000 in civil penalties.3

16. Three years later, MyPillow found itself in legal trouble for “disseminating false and misleading advertisements.”4 Rather than defending the truthfulness of MyPillow’s claims, Lindell opted to pay $100,000 in civil penalties.5

17. In 2016, consumers filed a class action lawsuit alleging that MyPillow’s infomercials targeted people with sleep-related ailments and falsely held out Lindell as a “sleep expert” even though he has no expertise in sleep science or medicine.6 Again, rather than defending the truthfulness of his company’s claims, Lindell paid to make the case go away.7 Similarly, the Better Business Bureau revoked the accreditation of MyPillow and lowered its rating to an “F” based on a pattern of complaints by consumers.8

2 See Complaint, California v. My Pillow, Inc., No. HG16836619 (Ca. Super. Ct., Alameda Cty. Oct. 26, 2016).

3 See Final Judgment, California v. My Pillow, Inc., No. HG16836619 (Ca. Super. Ct., Alameda Cty. Oct. 31, 2016); see also MyPillow Fined $1M for Phony Ads, NBC L.A. (Nov. 4, 2016), available at, https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/national-international/mypillow-fined-1- million-for-phony-ads/106508/.

4 See Complaint, California v. My Pillow, Inc., No. RG 19037519 (Ca. Super. Ct., Alameda Cty. Oct. 2, 2019).

5 See Final Judgment, California v. My Pillow, Inc., No. RG 19037519 (Ca. Super. Ct., Alameda County Oct. 23, 2019).

6 See Complaint, Amiri v. MyPillow, Inc., No. DS1606479 (Ca Super. Ct. San Bernardino Cty. Apr. 25, 2016).

7 See Amended Settlement Agreement and Release, Amiri v. MyPillow, Inc., No. DS1606479 (Ca Super. Ct. San Bernardino Cty. Aug. 8, 2016).

8 My Pillow, Better Business Bureau, available at, https://www.bbb.org/us/mn/chaska/profile/pillows/my-pillow-inc-0704-96152336 (Ex. 228). Exhibit numbers referenced within are either used in or consecutively numbered with related cases, Dominion v. Powell, No. 21-cv-00040 (D.D.C. Jan. 8, 2021) and Dominion v. Giuliani, No. 21-cv-00213 (D.D.C. Jan. 25, 2021).

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Lindell Scores a Valuable Product Endorsement from Donald Trump and Advertises Heavily on Conservative Media Platforms

18. Despite MyPillow’s history of run-ins with the law, the company became successful and its revenue exceeded $300 million in 2019 alone.9

19. In large part, MyPillow’s success is due to a gamble Lindell made on Fox News years ago.10 Lindell went all in and spent his last $2 million buying airtime for MyPillow ads on Fox News.11 The bet paid off, yielding $8.19 million in returns.12 In the first three quarters of 2020, MyPillow spent more than $62 million on television ads, with nearly 99% of it going to cable channels like Fox News.13 In the first half of 2020, MyPillow ads made up about 37.8% of the advertising revenue for Tucker Carlson’s show and 15% of the advertising revenue for Sean Hannity’s show—making MyPillow one of Fox’s biggest sponsors.14

20. As Tucker Carlson has stated on his show on Fox News: “If you have been watching this channel at all even for a moment you will recognize this man – probably the most famous face on Fox News, Mike Lindell, he created a product that you are familiar if you watch television or if you sleep at night. Mike, I cannot resist asking you for the famous words of yours that we’ll

9 Sapna Maheshwari & Tiffany Hsu, MyPillow C.E.O’s Trump Conspiracy Theories Put Company on the Spot, N.Y. Times (Feb. 5, 2021), available at, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/business/mike-lindell-mypillow.html (Ex. 230). 10 Mike Lindell, What are the Odds? 351-54 (2019).

11 Id.

12 Id.

13 Tiffany Hsu, As Corporate America Flees Trump, MyPillow’s C.E.O. Stands by Him, N.Y. Times (Jan. 12, 2021), available at, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/business/media/mypill ow-mike-lindell-trump.html (Ex. 231).

14 Haley Victory Smith, Thirty-eight percent of Tucker Carlson’s advertising came from MyPillow in 2020, data firm estimates, Wash. Examiner (July 7, 2020), available at, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/thirty-eight-percent-of-tucker-carlsons-advertising- came-from-mypillow-in-2020-data-firm-estimates (Ex. 232).

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remember.” After Lindell responded by plugging “MyPillow,” Carlson gushed that it is “the most successful sleep product in the history of sleep.”15

21. MyPillow also advertises heavily on Newsmax, where it has spent tens of thousands of ad dollars in one week alone.16

22. In addition to MyPillow’s advertising on Fox News, Newsmax, and other conservative networks, Lindell’s vocal support for Donald Trump over the years has been “very good for business.”17 In July 2017, Lindell sat right next to Trump at a White House event and got “about the most valuable endorsement an American can possibly get.”18 President Trump, with a MyPillow an arm-length away, endorsed MyPillow on national television, saying, “I actually bought a couple of pillows and they’re very good. They’re great. I’ve slept so much better ever since.”19 Lindell has repeatedly touted the endorsement, including during a purported interview on a Fox Business program.20

15 Tucker Carlson Hosts MyPillow Guy, One of His Few Remaining Advertisers, For Fawning Interview, YouTube (Dec. 22, 2020), available at, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXlx1Uz4Ujs&feature=youtu.be (Ex. 233).

16 Tiffany Hsu, As Corporate America Flees Trump, MyPillow’s C.E.O. Stands by Him, N.Y. Times (Jan. 12, 2021), available at, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/business/media/mypill ow-mike-lindell-trump.html (Ex. 231).

17 Betsy Klein, How Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, became a midterm messenger, CNN (Nov. 4, 2018), available at, https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/03/politics/donald-trump-mike-lindell- mypillow-midterms/index.html (Ex. 234); Why Now is the Time to Stand Up for America, ThriveTime Show (Dec. 23, 2020), available at, https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/business- podcasts/mike-lindell-the-my-pillow-founder-why-now-is-the-time-to-stand-up-for-america-the- freedoms-we-enjoy-and-president-donald-j-trump/ (Ex. 235); see also FlashPoint: Stand Firm! Mike Lindell, Hank Kunneman and Mario Murillo, The Victory Channel (Dec. 23, 2020), available at, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPhpPLknmBw (Ex. 236); MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Joins John Di Lemme LIVE on the Biden Scam Series, Conservative Business Journal (Dec. 11, 2020), available at, https://www.conservativebusinessjournal.com/podcast/mypillow- ceo-mike-lindell-biden-scam-series/ (Ex. 237).

18 My Pillow gets endorsement from President Trump, YouTube (July 20, 2017), available at, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSv_cGUhHOI (Ex. 238).

19 Id.

20 Id.

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Donald Trump endorses MyPillow during a nationally televised White House meeting on July 19, 2017.

Lindell touts Trump’s endorsement during an interview on Fox Business’s After the Bell on July 20, 2017.

After receiving Trump’s endorsement for MyPillow, Lindell sought Trump’s

23.

endorsement for another product in which he had a financial stake—an extract from a poisonous shrub that Lindell has held out as a “miracle” and a “cure” for COVID-19.21 During a televised interview, Lindell claimed the product was an “amazing cure that works for everybody” that “had been tested by over a thousand people to be safe.”22 When pressed to provide evidence supporting his claims, Lindell was unable to do so, but claimed that there had “absolutely” been Phase 1 and

21 Heather Murphy, Drug Pitched to Trump for Covid-19 Comes From a Deadly Plant, N.Y. Times (Aug. 20, 2020), available at, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/health/covid- oleandrin-trump-mypillow.html (Ex. 239).

22 Anderson Cooper to MyPillow CEO: How do you sleep at night?, CNN Business (Aug. 18, 2020), available at, https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2020/08/18/mike-lindell-anderson- cooper-coronavirus-therapeutic-mypillow-sot-vpx.cnn (Ex. 240).

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Phase 2 testing (there had not) and that it will “get[] approved by the FDA” (it did not). Rather than approving Lindell’s plant extract as a treatment for COVID-19, the FDA issued a warning letter to its marketers, writing that the product was “unapproved” and was being sold in violation of the law, and requesting that they “take immediate action to cease the sale” of the product, which “is not generally recognized as safe and effective for use under the conditions prescribed, recommended, or suggested in its labeling.”23

Lindell is a Gifted “Numbers Guy”

24. Lindell did not accumulate a personal net worth of over $300 million simply by being an aggressive salesman and advertiser: he was always “good at math” and “numbers came easily” to him, including “[p]ercentages, ratios, odds.”24

25. Over the course of three decades, Lindell was a professional card counter with a penchant for solving real-time mathematical equations necessary for beating the odds.25 While hunkered down at the blackjack table, he would feign a drunken stupor while hundreds of different number combinations ran through his mind like a “computerized algorithm,” enabling Lindell to calculate his bets based on the patterns he observed coming from the dealer’s hand.26

26. Lindell “especially loved game theory—the idea that success in making choices depends on understanding the choices of others.”27 Lindell’s success is due in part to his aptitude for understanding the choices of others—in particular what can motivate others to buy MyPillow products.

23 FDA Warning Letter to Phoenix Biotechnology Inc. (Dec. 15, 2020), available at,

https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning- letters/phoenix-biotechnology-inc-612178-12152020 (Ex. 241).

24 Mike Lindell, What are the Odds? 32 (2019).

25 Lee Weeks, With God All Things Are Possible, Decision Mag. (June 1, 2020), available at, https://decisionmagazine.com/with-god-all-things-are-possible/ (Ex. 242).

26 Id.

27 Mike Lindell, What are the Odds? 32 (2019).

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27. As a former professional card counter and self-described “numbers guy,” Lindell “look[s] at numbers every single day” at MyPillow.28

Lindell Understood What Really Happened on Election Night

28. In the months leading up to the 2020 election, while Democrats were encouraging people to vote by mail to minimize the spread of COVID-19 at polling places on Election Day, Donald Trump—whom Lindell followed on Twitter until Trump was banned—repeatedly discouraged his supporters from voting by mail and encouraged them to vote in person instead.29

29. Lindell knew that Trump had discouraged his supporters from voting by mail, as evidenced by the fact that Lindell himself retweeted two of Trump’s tweets doing so.30

28 President Trump’s not going anywhere. Mike Lindell with Sebastian Gorka on AMERICA First at 5:27, America First with Dr. Sebastian Gorka (Dec. 3, 2020), available at, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=438439460653478 (Ex. 243) (“I’m a numbers guy.”). 29 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Apr. 8, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1247861952736526336; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Apr. 11, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1249132374547464193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (May 26, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1265255835124539392?s=20; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (June 22, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1295385113862090753?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Aug. 23, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1297495295266357248; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Sept. 25, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1309455713882828802; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Sept. 28, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1310585397630689280; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Twitter (Sept. 30, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1311328767395205124 (Ex. 244).

30 Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell), Twitter (May 10, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realMikeLindell/status/1259509365448437760 (Ex. 245); Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell), Twitter (July 27, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realMikeLindell/status/1287542589483364354 (Ex. 246).

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30. Meanwhile, election officials in many states were prohibited from counting mail- in ballots before Election Day—meaning that Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots would not be counted until after Republican-leaning in-person voting had been completed.31

31. Precisely as one would expect under these circumstances—and as many media outlets and election officials had, in fact, predicted beforehand—Trump’s early leads in swing states were overtaken when Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots were counted as polls across the country closed on Election Day.32

32. From Lindell’s retweeting of Trump’s tweets discouraging his supporters from voting by mail, Lindell was well aware of the circumstances leading to Trump’s early leads being overtaken by Democratic-leaning mail-in ballots.

33. While Trump falsely claimed that the election had been stolen from him, by November 12, 2020, Trump’s own Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (“CISA”)—

31 Anthony Izaguirre, Delays in verifying mail-in ballots will slow election tally, Associated Press (Oct. 4, 2020), available at, https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-election-2020- donald-trump-elections-voting-2020-b382942a72809ab70a32d7dc1a93ee40 (Ex. 247) (In Pennsylvania, “Republican state lawmakers there have not allowed additional time to process ballots that arrive before Election Day, despite pleas from local election officials.”); Katie Wedell & Kyle Bagenstose, Still waiting for a winner? Blame outdated mail-in ballot counting laws in seven states, USA Today (Nov. 4, 2020), available at, https://www.usatoday.com/story/n ews/investigations/2020/11/04/who-won-mail-ballots-rules-delay-election-results-key- states/6152470002/ (Ex. 248) (“But the laws in seven states prevented election officials from counting many of them until Election Day. Votes that could have been tallied in advance sat in unopened envelopes until Tuesday morning.”).

32 See e.g., Holly Otterbein, ‘The math is pretty simple’: Trump’s lead shrinks in Pennsylvania, Politico (Nov. 4, 2020), available at, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/04/pennsylvania- results-trump-biden-434124 (Ex. 249) (“There were more than 1 million mail ballots left to be counted ... So far, 78 percent of mail ballots have broken for Biden and 21 percent have been won by Trump.”); Jenny Jarvie, Trump’s lead in Georgia shrinks to below 1,000 votes, L.A. Times (Nov. 4, 2020), available at, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-11-04/election- trump-margin-narrows-georgia (Ex. 344) (“Trump’s lead in Georgia shrinks to below 1,000 votes”).

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then led by a Trump appointee Chris Krebs—confirmed that there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”33

Mike Lindell Cons People into Buying Pillows

By Telling Them the “Big Lie” About Dominion and the Election

34. Lindell purposefully disregarded CISA’s announcement—and the natural consequence of Trump discouraging his supporters from voting by mail—to exploit an opportunity to market MyPillow. Lindell had MyPillow sponsor Women for America First’s “March for Trump” bus tour, which was dedicated to promoting the Big Lie that the election had been stolen.34 In exchange for sponsoring the bus tour, MyPillow received advertising on the tour bus and Lindell—known as “the MyPillow Guy”—was given a platform to speak on the tour.

The Women for America First “March for Trump” bus featured MyPillow’s logo toward the front of the bus.

33 Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, Joint Statement From Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & The Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees (Nov. 12, 2020), available at, https://www.cisa.gov/news/2020/11/12/joint-statement-elections-infrastructure-government- coordinating-council-election (Ex. 19).

34 Women for America First was cofounded by former tea party activist Amy Kremer and her daughter Kylie Jane Kremer, who together created the “Stop the Steal” Facebook group. See Craig Silverman, Jane Lytvynenko & Pranav Dixit, How ‘The Women For America First’ Bus Tour Led To The Capitol Coup Attempt, BuzzFeed News (Jan. 25, 2021), available at, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/maga-bus-tour-coup (Ex. 252).

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35. Lindell promoted MyPillow’s sponsorship of the “March for Trump” bus tour on Twitter and helped disseminate the Big Lie about the election by speaking at rallies and telling a fable that there were “algorithms” in Dominion machines programmed to steal votes from Trump and that the fraud was discovered in an “election night miracle” when Trump’s lead was so great that it broke the algorithms.35

36. The website for the MyPillow-sponsored “March for Trump” bus tour also promoted the January 6 rally in Washington, D.C. by saying, “we will do whatever it takes to ensure the integrity of this election ...”36

The “March for Trump” bus tour website invited people to join the January 6, 2021 rally in Washington, D.C.

35 Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell), Twitter (Nov. 29, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realMikeLindell/status/1333094936758153219 (Ex. 253); Mike Lindell mentions possible ‘civil war’ during pro-Trump rally at U.S. Capitol on January 5, 2021 at 1:54- 2:12 (Tr. at 3:14- 15), YouTube (Jan. 5, 2021), previously available at, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7nIFVLrdIE&feature=youtu.be (last visited Jan. 28, 2021) (Ex. 254) (“At 11:15 on election night, this is when the miracle happened.”); Women for America First Rally at 2:51:08-38 (Tr. at 4:14-22), C-SPAN (Dec. 12, 2020), available at, https://www.c- span.org/video/?507234-1/women-america-rally (Ex. 255) (“On election night, at 11:15 p.m., all the algorithms that were set across our country in the machines ... all broke.”); Mike Lindell opens the Jericho March, Dec 12 at 6:59-7:09 (Tr. at 7:4-7), Jericho March (Dec. 12, 2020), available at, https://app.videosquirrel.app/watch/1812 (Ex. 256) (“at 11:15 the algorithms of these machines that cheated our whole country could not keep up...it broke the algorithms.”).

36 Trump March, available at, https://web.archive.org/web/20210106224955/https://trumpmarch. com/ (Ex. 257).

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37. The “March for Trump” campaign spent the weeks leading up to the January 6 rally on a 20-city bus tour, spreading the Big Lie across the country.37

Lindell Sets Out to Find and Manufacture “Evidence” to Support His Defamatory Marketing Campaign and False Preconceived Narrative

38. Lindell also set out in search of “evidence” he could use to support the false preconceived—but profitable—narrative that the election had been stolen. Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood offered Lindell the purported “evidence” he was looking for—which they posted on a fundraising website in support of a defamatory media tour falsely alleging that Dominion stole the election by manipulating votes through the use of an algorithm. Lindell helped finance Powell’s and Wood’s defamatory media campaign.

39. Because he spoke with Powell at least twice a day,38 Lindell was well aware that Powell had been kicked off Trump’s legal team.39

40. And, from the “due diligence” he admits he performed,40 Lindell also knew that on December 1, 2020, after Powell and Wood had posted their “evidence” to their fundraising website, Trump appointee and then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr rebutted their false claims against Dominion, stating, “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And

37 Ex. 252.

38 RSBN’s Exclusive with Mike Lindell Part 2 at 15:54, RSBN (Jan. 18, 2021), available at, https://rumble.com/vczx1t-rsbn-exclusive-interview-with-mike-lindell-part-2.html (Ex. 258) (“Her and I talk at least twice a day.”).

39 Maggie Haberman & Alan Feuer, Trump Team Disavows Lawyer Who Peddled Conspiracy Theories on Voting, N.Y. Times (Nov. 22, 2020), available at, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/22/us/politics/sidney-powell-trump.html (Ex. 259).

40 Mike Lindell to Newsmax TV: ��President Trump will Prevail,’ Newsmax (Dec. 17, 2020), available at, https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/mike-lindell-election-fraud-mypillow- ceo/2020/12/17/id/1002145/ (Ex. 260) (“I’ve done my own due diligence”); Ex. 235 (“done my own due diligence”).

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the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.”41

41. Indeed, the “evidence” put forward by Powell and Wood did not substantiate their false accusations, but had been deliberately misrepresented, manufactured, and cherry-picked. For example:

(a) Powell and Wood posted the declaration of an anonymous “military intelligence expert” code-named “Spyder,” who has since been identified as Josh Merritt.42 That “military intelligence expert” has now admitted that he never actually worked in military intelligence and that the declaration Powell’s team wrote for him to sign is “misleading” and he “was trying to backtrack” on it.43

(b) Powell and Wood cherry-picked Princeton professor Andrew W. Appel’s statements about a decades-old machine not designed by Dominion, which was not used in the 2020 election in any of the swing states being challenged by Powell and Wood. Powell and Wood posted Professor Appel’s cherry-picked statements to their fundraising website as though Professor Appel’s expertise was “evidence” supporting the election-rigging claims against Dominion. In reality, Professor Appel and 58 other specialists in election security have forcefully rebutted Powell’s and Wood’s claims, explaining that they “have never claimed that technical vulnerabilities have actually been exploited to alter the outcome of any US election.”44 They further explained that “no credible evidence has been put forth that supports a conclusion that the 2020 election outcome in any state has been altered through technical compromise.”45

(c) On their fundraising website, Powell and Wood also claimed that Georgia’s Republican Governor Kemp and Secretary of State Raffensperger had “rushed”

41 Michael Balsamo, Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud, Associated Press (Dec. 1, 2020), available at, https://apnews.com/article/barr-no-widespread-election-fraud- b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d (Ex. 43).

42 Complaint at Ex. 7, Pearson v. Kemp, No. 12-cv-04809 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 25, 2020) [Dkt. 1-9], available at, https://defendingtherepublic.org/?page_id=986.

43 Emma Brown, Aaron C. Davis & Alice Crites, Sidney Powell’s secret ‘military intelligence expert,’ key to fraud claims in election lawsuits, never worked in military intelligence, Wash. Post (Dec. 11, 2020), available at, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/sidney- powell-spider-spyder-witness/2020/12/11/0cd567e6-3b2a-11eb-98c4-25dc9f4987e8_story.html (Ex. 2).

44 See Tony Adams, Prof. Andrew W Appel, et al., Scientists say no credible evidence of computer fraud in the 2020 election outcome, but policymakers must work with experts to improve confidence, Matt Blaze (Nov. 16, 2020), available at, https://www.mattblaze.org/papers/election2020.pdf (Ex. 47).

45 Id.

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through the purchase of Dominion voting machines and software, noting that the Dominion certification from the Secretary of State was “undated,” and attaching a copy of an undated Dominion Certification. In reality, the authentic certificate is dated August 9, 2019—more than a year before the November 2020 election— and is publicly available online at the Georgia Secretary of State��s website.46 Upon information and belief, Powell, Wood, or someone reporting to them downloaded the authentic certificate from the Secretary of State’s website and cut off the date, seal, and signature before posting the doctored document to their fundraising website. Other government records prove that Dominion won the Georgia contract after scoring the highest in a competitive bid process during which it competed against Election Systems & Software (“ES&S”) and Smartmatic; those records are also publicly available on the very same webpage where, upon information and belief, Powell, Wood, or someone reporting to them downloaded the dated Dominion Certification before doctoring it.47

42.

two days after Barr’s announcement that there was no evidence to substantiate accusations of machine fraud, Lindell continued promoting the Big Lie.

43. On December 3, 2020, Lindell appeared on America First with Sebastian Gorka. During that interview, Lindell told a global television audience that he, Powell, and Wood were “getting the word out on this election fraud” and that they were trying to get these “Dominion machines.”48

44. Having been given a platform to promote the Big Lie, Lindell also took the opportunity to market MyPillow, saying that the “President loves” MyPillow and that people

46 Georgia Secretary of State, Elections Security Is Our Top Priority: Security-Focused Tech Company, Dominion Voting to Implement New Verified Paper Ballot System, available at, https://sos.ga.gov/securevoting/ (Ex. 1); compare Complaint at Ex. 5, Pearson v. Kemp, No. 1:20-cv-04809 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 25, 2020) [Dkt. 1-6], available at, https://defendingtherepublic.org/?page_id=986 with Georgia Secretary of State,

Dominion Certification (Aug. 9, 2019), available at, https://sos.ga.gov/admin/uploads/Dominion _Certification.pdf (Ex. 10).

47 Ex. 1.

48 President Trump’s not going anywhere. Mike Lindell with Sebastian Gorka on AMERICA First at 4:4-6, 6:42-44 (Tr. at 5:8-9, 7:19), America First with Dr. Sebastian Gorka (Dec. 3, 2020), available at, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=438439460653478 (Ex. 243).

Despite the glaring problems with Powell’s and Wood’s purported “evidence,” and

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should go to MyPillow.com and use promo code “Gorka.”49 During the interview, the MyPillow logo, website, and phone number were also prominently displayed for viewers.50

The MyPillow logo, website, and phone number are shown during a Mike Lindell interview on America First with Sebastian Gorka on December 3, 2020.

45. By December 7, Georgia had conducted an independent audit and hand count of 100% of the ballots—all of which were paper ballots—conclusively disproving the lie that Dominion’s tabulating machines had miscounted votes or rigged the election. Indeed, Georgia conducted three counts confirming the result of the presidential election.51

46. By December 9, Powell’s and Wood’s sham litigations in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin had been dismissed.

47. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan found that Powell and Wood had submitted “nothing but speculation and conjecture that votes for President Trump were destroyed, discarded or switched to votes for Vice President Biden.” Op. & Order at 34, King v. Whitmer, No. 20-cv-12134 (E.D. Mich. Dec. 7, 2020) [Dkt. 62].

49 Id. at 2:51-52, 3:09-21 (Tr. at 4:10, 4:16-19).

50 Id. at 3:01-19.

51Georgia Secretary of State, Historic First Statewide Audit of Paper Ballots Upholds Result of Presidential Race, available at, https://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/historic_first_statewide_a udit_of_paper_ballots_upholds_result_of_presidential_race (Ex. 11).

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48. And the United States District Court for the District of Arizona found that the evidence they put forward was “largely based on anonymous witnesses, hearsay, and irrelevant analysis of unrelated elections,” and includes “expert reports” that “reach implausible conclusions, often because they are derived from wholly unreliable sources.” Order at 24-25, Bowyer v. Ducey, No. 2-20-cv-02321 (D. Ariz. Dec. 9, 2020) [Dkt. 84] (emphasis added).

49. Despite the fact that Powell’s and Wood’s “evidence” and sources had been discredited and their cases had been dismissed, Lindell persisted with the Big Lie.

50. On December 11, 2020, he appeared on the Conservative Business Journal and described what he dubbed the “election night miracle”—falsely telling his audience that at 11:15 p.m. on election night, Trump got so many votes that he “broke the algorithm” in the Dominion machines that had been programmed to give “1.3 to Biden and 0.7 to the president” for each vote cast.52

Lindell Uses the Big Lie to Market MyPillow at Rallies in Washington, D.C.

51. On December 12, 2020 in Washington, D.C., Lindell spoke at a Women for America First rally that MyPillow had sponsored. The rally was nationally broadcast on C-SPAN, which identified Lindell as “MyPillow CEO.”53 During his speech, Lindell repeated the lie that “the algorithms” in the machines broke.54 Despite the fact that Georgia had already confirmed the vote tallies from the Dominion machines by hand counting all the paper ballots, Lindell told the nationwide audience that “we cannot ... let them use these machines” in the Georgia Senate run- off races.55

52 Ex. 237 at 05:26-37 (Tr. at 5:21-23).

53 Women for America First Rally, C-SPAN (Dec. 12, 2020), available at, https://www.c- span.org/video/?507234-1/women-america-rally (Ex. 255).

54 Id. at 2:51:08-38, 2:52:07-09, 2:57:44-46 (Tr. at 4:15-22, 5:7, 9:16-17).

55 Id. at 2:58:22-26 (Tr. at 10:1-2).

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Mike Lindell speaks at the Women for America First rally in Washington, D.C., on December 12, 2020.

52. Also on December 12, 2020 in Washington, D.C., Lindell spoke at the Jericho March, which MyPillow had sponsored.

53. The Jericho March website states that “[j]ust as Joshua was instructed to march around the walls of Jericho, Jericho Marchers march around at a specific place and time until that darkness is exposed, and the walls of corruption fall down.”56

54. In the biblical account of Jericho, after the horns had blown and the walls of Jericho had fallen down, armed soldiers sacked and destroyed the city.57

55. At the Jericho March, Eric Metaxas introduced Lindell and told the crowd to use the promo code “ERIC” to buy a MyPillow; this was followed by a MyPillow ad featuring Lindell on the broadcast of the march on Right Side Broadcasting Network (“RSBN”).58

56 Id.

57 See Joshua 6:1-24. 58 Ex. 256.

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Mike Lindell appears in a MyPillow ad on RSBN alongside Eric Metaxas speaking during the Jericho March in Washington, D.C., on December 12, 2020.

56. Lindell then took the stage and bellowed, “Everything I’ve been telling you for three weeks now is true. I have seen it. The fraud is 100%.”59 Lindell continued, “Georgia ... better have a fair election and not use those machines.”60

Mike Lindell speaks at the Jericho March in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 2020.

57. Later, the RSBN broadcast of the Jericho March again cut to a split screen. The left half of the screen featured failed congressional candidate Leon Benjamin yelling that “the

59 Id. at 00:49-1:00 (Tr. at 1:11-13). 60 Id. at 08:28-33 (Tr. at 8:9).

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Jericho walls must come down!” while Lindell advertised MyPillow on the right half of the screen.61

Mike Lindell appears in a MyPillow ad on RSBN alongside Leon Benjamin speaking at the Jericho March in Washington, D.C. on December 12, 2020.

58. Along with Lindell and MyPillow marketing, the Women for America First rally and the Jericho March also featured Ali Alexander, who had spoken alongside Lindell’s allies Sidney Powell and Lin Wood at the so-called “Stop the Steal Rally” in Alpharetta, Georgia ten days earlier. During that rally, Powell and Wood had falsely accused Dominion of rigging the election and bribing Georgia’s Governor. Alexander had referred to the crowd as “foot soldiers,” and Wood had instructed them to surround the governor’s house and blow their horns.62

Dominion Repeatedly Demands Retraction of the Big Lie Being Spread by Lindell and His Allies but Lindell Repeatedly Doubles Down

59. On December 16, 2020, Dominion sent a 15-page retraction demand letter to Lindell’s ally, Sidney Powell. The letter outlined the falsity of the claims that Powell and Lindell

61 Jericho March Live from Washington, D.C. at 2:19:42-21:02, Right Side Broadcasting (Dec. 12, 2020),

available at, https://www.facebook.com/rsbnetwork/videos/vb.414280728767306/188101792958 083/?type=2&theater (Ex. 261).

62 Sidney Powell, Lin Wood attend ‘Stop the Steal’ rally in Georgia, YouTube, (Dec. 2, 2020), available at, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq-_B5z3QIA (last visited Feb. 3, 2021) (Ex. 44).

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had been making about Dominion.63 The letter made headlines in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, and other national media outlets.64 Because of the amount of press surrounding the letter, and the fact that Lindell bankrolled Powell’s defamatory media campaign and speaks to Powell at least twice a day,65 Lindell was likely aware of the letter’s contents on or shortly after December 16, 2020.66

60. On December 18, Dominion sent retraction demand letters to various media outlets including One America News Network (“OAN”), Newsmax, and The Epoch Times. The next day, Newsmax aired a segment purporting to clarify its coverage of Dominion and the election.67

61. A few days after Dominion sent the letter to Newsmax, Lindell appeared on Greg Kelly Reports, hosted by Sebastian Gorka. Lindell started to describe what had purportedly

63 Letter from T. Clare and M. Meier to S. Powell (Dec. 16, 2020) (Ex. 3).

64 Alan Feuer, Dominion demands that Sidney Powell retract ‘baseless and false allegations’ about voting machines, N.Y. Times (Dec. 17, 2020), available at, https://www.nytimes.com/2020 /12/17/us/dominion-demands-that-sidney-powell-retract-baseless-and-false-allegations-about- voting-machines.html (Ex. 154); Emma Brown, Dominion sues pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, Seeking more than $1.3 billion, Wash. Post (Jan. 8, 2021), available at, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/dominion-sues-pro-trump-lawyer-sidney-powell- seeking-more-than-13-billion/2021/01/08/ebe5dbe0-5106-11eb-b96e-

0e54447b23a1_story.html (Ex. 167); Alison Durkee, Dominion Demands Sidney Powell Retract ‘Knowingly Baseless’ Voting Machine Conspiracy Theory, Forbes (Dec. 17, 2020), available at, https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/17/dominion-demands-sidney-powell- retract-knowingly-baseless-voting-machine-conspiracy-theory/?sh=4cc7cd453db0 (Ex. 168); Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak & Pamela Brown, Trump campaign told to preserve all documents related to Sidney Powell and Dominion Voting Systems, CNN (Dec. 19, 2020), available at, https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/trump-campaign-sidney-powell-dominion-voting- systems/index.html (Ex. 169).

65 RSBN’s Exclusive with Mike Lindell Part 2 at 15:52-54 (Tr. at 15:1-2), RSBN (Jan. 18, 2021), available at, https://rumble.com/vczx1t-rsbn-exclusive-interview-with-mike-lindell-part-2.html (Ex. 258) (“[Sidney] has been working night and day. Her and I talk at least twice a day.”).

66 Id. (“[Sidney] has been working night and day. Her and I talk at least twice a day.”).

67 John Whitehouse (@existentialfish), Twitter (Dec. 21, 2020), available at, https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1341078245878472706 (Ex. 262).

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happened “at 11:15 on election night.” Gorka cut him off, telling him they were not going to discuss that.68

62. Later that day, after being cut off by Gorka on Newsmax, Lindell used Twitter to disseminate the Big Lie about Dominion, including that “We have all the evidence!!! Biggest election fraud in world history!!!! Crime against the world!!!”69 and “Millions of votes were stolen by dominion machines!”70

Mike Lindell tweets from December 21, 2020.

63. Two days later, on December 23, 2020, Dominion sent Lindell a letter demanding

that Lindell stop making false claims about Dominion.71

68 Mike Lindell to Newsmax TV: ‘American Dream’ is on the Line at 03:38-47 (Tr. at 5:2-6), Newsmax (Dec. 21, 2020), available at, https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/mike-lindell- election-lawsuits-american-dream/2020/12/21/id/1002635/ (Ex. 263).

69 Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell), Twitter (Dec. 21, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realMikeLindell/status/1341211411771498496 (Ex. 264).

70 Mike Lindell (@realMikeLindell), Twitter (Dec. 21, 2020), previously available at, https://twitter.com/realMikeLindell/status/1341233672729583617 (Ex. 265).

71 Letter from T. Clare and M. Meier to M. Lindell (Dec. 23, 2020) (Ex. 266).

0 notes