Voting machine company settles $1B defamation suit against Mike Lindell
The voting machine company formerly known as Dominion Voting Systems on Wednesday ended its billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against Trump ally Mike Lindell, eight months after the company was purchased by a former Republican election official.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the company -- now called Liberty Vote -- said, "The Parties have agreed to a confidential settlement to this matter."
Dominion sued Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, in 2021 for $1.3 billion, claiming he pushed false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election despite knowing they were lies.
Voting systems made by Dominion, one of the most-used voting machine companies in the U.S., were used in 27 states in during the 2024 election.
Dominion was sold in October to a company run by Scott Leiendecker, whose LinkedIn profile says he served as the election director for the city of St. Louis until 2012. News articles from the time indicate he is a Republican.
The company and Lindell agreed to a dismissal of the $1.3 billion defamation suit and agreed that "each party shall bear its own attorneys’ fees, expenses, and costs," according to a court filing late Wednesday.
Lindell, who is running for governor of Minnesota, told ABC News that the development was a "relief."
"I wonder what Fox News thinks, when they settled for $787 million?" Lindell said, regarding Fox News' decision to settle a similar defamation suit by paying Dominion $787.5 million in 2023.
"Maybe they should have held out," Lindell said.
A jury last year issued a $2.3 million judgment against Lindell after finding he had defamed a former Dominion Voting Systems director with claims of election fraud.
A judge last September also found that Lindell defamed the voting company Smartmatic with similar false claims, but has not yet determined a dollar amount for damages. Earlier, Lindell was ordered to pay Smartmatic more than $50,000 in sanctions as a result of a "frivolous" countersuit he filed against the company.
Editor's note: This story has been updated.
