Judge orders Mike Lindell to pay contest winner’s attorney fees

After reviewing the ruling, Lindell replied, “More strikes!”

Attorneys for Zeidman and Lindell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

MyPillow’s CEO continues to up the ante on the competition, which he launched in August 2021, promising $5 million to anyone who could verify and debunk “cyber data and packet captures from the November 2020 election.”

Since 2020, Lindell has repeatedly and erroneously claimed that the presidential election was rigged. The far-right conspiracy theorist offered a hefty sum of money to anyone who could prove that his trove of data was not “valid” election information.

Enter Robert Zeidman, the computer scientist who joined Lindell’s competition and did just that.

Zeidman effectively demonstrated that Lindell’s “data” contained generic polling information and was unrelated to the election, according to an April 2023 arbitration panel decision.

Lindell, however, refused to pay Zeidman, so the winner of the competition took Lindell to court for $5 million plus interest.

The two men and their attorneys went back and forth in court for months until a judge ruled on the matter in February of this year, ordering Lindell to pay Zeidman the $5 million award, plus 10 months interest within one month of the decision.

Zeidman also sought reimbursement for attorney fees he accrued while battling Lindell in court. According to Thursday’s order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Dulce J. Foster, he sought $12,800 for 16.1 hours billed at a rate of $800 an hour.

Lindell’s lawyers contested Zeidman’s claim, arguing that the $800 an hour rate exceeded the “reasonable hourly rate” for legal work in Minnesota, where the case was brought.

Foster ruled in part in Zeidman’s favor this week, ordering Lindell to pay a portion of the attorney’s fees sought and reducing his hourly rate.

“Based on the information in the record and the Court’s own knowledge and experience of prevailing market rates, and taking into account the uncomplicated nature of this discovery dispute, the Court concludes that an hourly rate of $400 per hour is most appropriate to the predominant. in the community for similar services,” Foster wrote.

The judge also applied a 30 percent deduction to Zeidman’s counseling hours, saying his discovery requests were excessive.

In total, Lindell owes Zeidman $4,508 in attorneys’ fees, the judge ordered.

The “Prove Mike Wrong” competition is just one of several legal battles Lindell has fought in recent years.

The businessman and his pillow empire are defending defamation lawsuits brought by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Lindell falsely claimed that election technology companies manipulated the results of the 2020 election.

In recent months, Lindell’s lawyers have resigned, citing unpaid fees.