MyPillow founder and diehard 2020 election denier Mike Lindell is in a Denver courtroom this week, as his ten-day defamation trial over stolen election claims kicks off. Since the trial revolves around Lindell and the highly charged issue of election conspiracy theories (but, mainly, Lindell), it promises to be a mess.

Lindell is being sued by Eric Coomer, a former employee for Dominion Voting Systems, for publicly accusing Coomer and Dominion of helping to steal the election for Joe Biden.

Dominion has sued on these grounds before, famously reaching a $787 million settlement with Fox News. But while Fox News shied away from covering that suit and its own legal woes, Lindell and his “Lindell TV” online video platform have gone entirely in the other direction. Lindell’s online network has promoted the showdown as a sort of boxing match, complete with its own title card: “Coomer vs Lindell: Voting Machines on Trial” and blind Lady Justice graphic. The network website gives videos on the subject a dedicated section under the heading: “Most Important Trial of the Century.”

Before jury selection kicked off on Monday, Lindell held a press conference outside the courthouse during which he revealed that he isn’t exactly repentant about promoting conspiracy theories. Lindell was joined by several supporters, many of them with signs calling for the release of imprisoned Lindell pal and fellow election-denier Tina Peters. Asked who controls the voting-machine algorithms that determine elections, Lindell had one idea: “Satan.”

Beyond the current spectacle, the trial recalls the heady days right after the 2020 election, when the most utterly nonsensical claims could become matters of national importance.

Coomer became a target of the right just days after the 2020 election when Joe Oltmann, a right-wing Colorado podcaster, claimed that he had listened in on a pre-election “antifa conference call” and overheard antifascists plotting. On that call, in Oltmann’s telling, someone introduced as “Eric from Dominion” vowed to steal the election. After Trump’s loss, Oltmann deduced that “Eric” was none other than Dominion’s Eric Coomer.

Naturally, Oltmann hadn’t actually recorded the incriminating “antifa conference call,” and he never provided any evidence that it took place. Still, the “Eric at Dominion” trope eventually made its way to Lindell, who took to his platforms to call Coomer a “traitor” for his imagined role in the election theft.

Coomer first sued Lindell and his companies in 2022, for an unspecified amount of money. And unlike other media figures who have been sued over election-fraud claims, Lindell has refused to repent or admit he was wrong. In fact, he is poised to take the stand.

Now, testifying on your own behalf is rarely a good idea. But that’s doubly true for Lindell, a voluble former crack addict with a persecution complex; it’s difficult to imagine a person more poorly suited than he is taking the stand at his own trial. (His plans to do so were first reported by Rolling Stone.)

On Monday, I asked Lindell whether he really planned to take the witness stand.

“Of course!” Lindell texted me from the courtroom, making sure to include the fact that he was, indeed, in the courtroom. “There is only one truth!”

Lindell also offered to provide updates to me throughout the trial, so stay tuned for that.

While I absolutely love it, rather than texting me, Lindell should probably be paying more attention to a case that could prove financially disastrous to himself and his co-defendants, MyPillow and Lindell TV’s parent company.

If Coomer is victorious, Lindell could potentially be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages—although it’s not clear the pillow impresario has much money left. Last year, Lindell’s legal team on the Coomer case and other election-related lawsuits ditched him, saying he owed them millions of dollars in unpaid bills. And this April, Lindell said that his legal problems had drained him financially, complaining to one judge that he was “in ruins.”

Fortunately for Lindell, even a civil trial can provide opportunities to sell pillows. As Lindell sat in the courtroom for voir dire, Lindell TV’s round-the-clock coverage of the case continued, with anchor Emerald Robinson taking spare moments to remind the audience that MyPillow products are so good, they could prejudice the jury pool.

“I have to wonder if the judge is asking if they have a MyPillow,” she said. “And if so, are they being excused for loving such a wonderful product?”

Some leading Trump allies have started trying to rebrand the Butler, Pennsylvania attempt on Trump’s life—which happened last summer on July 13—as “J13,” in what appears to be an attempt by MAGA to have their own catchy date (à la January 6th) to use as a shorthand for a founding grievance.

The effort dates back to last year, but it flared back up after FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s now-infamous Fox News interview in which he said there was no larger plot behind the assassination attempt. While this was a critical blow to Trump supporters who wanted the deep state to somehow be implicated in the shooting, it did at least provide new fodder for MAGA personalities trying to rebrand the shooting as “J13.”

“I’m sorry, the investigation into J13 is closed?” former Trump spokeswoman Liz Harrington, one of the most committed promoters of the “J13” label, posted on May 19 on X.

Share

At Revolver News, a conspiracy-theory blog launched by now–State Dept. official Darren Beattie, Bongino’s remarks prompted an article under the headline “J13 quietly disappears.” The piece’s central claim was that the event was being scoured from the national consciousness. That article frames “J13” as a commonly known and used shorthand, posing questions about “J13,” the “J13 fallout,” and so forth.

While the “J13” coinage emerged shortly after the assassination attempt, its most prominent use may have come in Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins’s addendum to the congressional Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump’s final report on the shooting. Higgins there used “J13” a whopping twenty-five times, and on social media and his congressional webpage he referred to the task force’s report as the “J13 investigative report.”

Even after this congressional imprimatur, however, “J13” is absent from normal conversation in all but the most online MAGA corners. For example: when Harrington mentioned the term last month, Bulwark managing editor Sam Stein had to ask me what on earth “J13” meant. [Editor’s note: Shut up, Will!]

Leave a comment

Share The Bulwark