AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File
A federal judge on Friday handed Smartmatic a major victory in its defamation case against Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, ruling that none of the conspiracy claims Lindell made about the company’s voting technology were true.
In an order, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan wrote that “no reasonable trier of fact could find that any of the statements at issue are true” and that “because no reasonable jury could find that the statements at issue are true, the Court concludes that the statements are false and defamatory as a matter of law.”
The ruling grants Smartmatic partial summary judgment on the issue of falsity, leaving only two questions for a jury to decide: whether Lindell acted with “actual malice” and how much the company can recover in damages. Smartmatic is seeking damages in the nine figures.
The case, filed in 2021, stems from Lindell’s repeated claims that Smartmatic was part of a plot to steal the 2020 election from President Donald Trump. The MyPillow CEO alleged without evidence that Smartmatic’s machines were connected to the internet, hacked by foreign actors, and programmed to flip votes to former President Joe Biden. But audits, state and federal reviews, and independent testing all confirmed the security and integrity of Smartmatic’s systems.
Erik Connolly, legal counsel for Smartmatic, celebrated the decision in a statement to Mediaite:
“We are pleased with the Court’s decision to hold Mike Lindell and...
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