Mike Lindell Promises $5 Million in a Contest, and Now the Supreme Court May Force Him To Pay Up

When the MyPillow CEO, Mike Lindell, promised $5 million to anyone who could prove his “election rigging” data was bad, a software developer jumped at the chance but says he was stiffed out of the prize money.Now that man is asking the Supreme Court to revive an arbitration judgement that was thrown out by an appeals court over an interpretation of the rules.Mr. Lindell has repeatedly claimed that electronic voting machines are rigging elections and staged a contest promising a $5 million payout to anyone who could prove the data he used to claim the 2020 election was rigged against President Trump were not accurate.A computer forensics expert, Robert Zeidman, says he won the contest during the 2021 Cyber Symposium by producing a detailed report showing that the files Mr. Lindell provided contained no election-related information and could not possibly represent 2020 election data.Mr. Lindell never paid the money and Mr. Zeidman went to arbitration to demand it. A three-member panel, which included an arbitrator selected by Mr. Lindell, unanimously ruled in Mr. Zeidman’s favor in April 2023 and the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota confirmed the award.Yet in July the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit vacated the binding arbitration award, holding that the arbitrators had exceeded their authority by interpreting certain contest terms using contest advertising material instead of only the contest rules.While the appeals court did not rule on the validity of Mr. Lindell’s election claims, he touted it as proof he was right.“It’s a great day for our country,” Mr. Lindell said at the time. “This is a big win. It opens the door to getting rid of these electronic voting machines and getting paper ballots, hand-counted.”“This decision is not only bad for me, but bad for America,” Mr. Zeidman stated in an op-ed for Slate in explaining why he’s bringing the case to the Supreme Court.“My effort to overturn this decision is not about the money. This case is about our country and its principles,” Mr. Zeidman added.Mr. Zeidman says that only relying on the contest rules would have required contestants to prove that there was “no connection whatsoever” between the data Mr. Lindell provided and the 2020 presidential election. He calls that an unreasonable request and one he says the arbitrators determined would make the challenge unwinnable and “no contest at all.”Mr. Zeidman’s suit is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate the arbitration agreement.Mr. Lindell has faced numerous legal challenges over his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump. In June, a federal jury found that the MyPillow founder defamed a former Dominion Voting Systems official by falsely claiming he helped steal the 2020 election for President Biden. Mr. Lindell is appealing the $2.3 million verdict.

Mike Lindell Promises $5 Million in a Contest, and Now the Supreme Court May Force Him To Pay Up

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