MyPillow founder Mike Lindell loses his final attorney in lawsuit over $5 million 'Prove Mike Wrong' challenge award

Mike Lindell gives a thumbs up as he passes by a rally for supporters of former President Donald Trump, Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Minnesota pillow magnate Mike Lindell has lost his final lawyer in a civil lawsuit over a disastrous challenge in which he failed to prove electoral interference and is now on the hook for over $5 million.

In 2021 , the outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump issued the “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge at a South Dakota election fraud symposium — showcasing data purportedly proving the People’s Republic of China had interfered with the 2020 U.S. election.

Engineer Robert Zeidman — himself a Trump supporter — picked up the poly-foam gauntlet thrown down by the onetime QVC star . Despite highly doubting his own abilities, Zeidman won the contest.

In March , two of Lindell’s attorneys jumped ship – even as he was given the green light to appeal his loss at the district court level. Earlier this month, Lindell’s final attorney in the lawsuit quit.

“Counsel for Respondent has notified the Court by email that he can no longer serve as lead counsel for Respondent,” Magistrate Judge Dulce J. Foster wrote in a terse June 4 order.

That order also reset a previously scuttled hearing in the case for late July. That hearing had originally been scheduled for late May. It was canceled the day before it was set to be held because none of Lindell’s attorneys would be able to attend.

“The Court warns Respondent that because it is a business entity, if it seeks to oppose the motion it must have counsel appear on its behalf at the hearing because a business entity cannot represent itself pro se,” Foster noted.

Lindell’s namesake organization, Lindell Management LLC, hosted the cyber symposium that featured the “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge.”

When issuing the challenge, Lindell said his team of experts would provide “cyber data and packet captures from the 2020 November election” and said the upshot of the challenge was to “find proof that this cyber data is not valid data from the November Election.”

Contestants who could prove the data was not from the 2020 election would be awarded $5 million, the announcement promised.

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The rules of the challenge also provided that any disputes about winning or losing would be decided by mandatory arbitration.

After proving Lindell wrong, the MyPillow founder’s hand-selected three-member panel ruled against the engineer. Arbitration ensued and Zeidman won. Lindell filed in state court to vacate the award. Zeidman appealed in federal court to enforce the award. Both cases were eventually consolidated and removed to federal court.

In February, a Minnesota federal court vindicated the arbitrator’s analysis and Zeidman’s $5 million win.

“The panel concluded that Zeidman proved that each file did not include packet capture data and thus was not related to the November 2020 election, so he had satisfied the Challenge rules, and was entitled to the $5 million reward,” the opinion enforcing the award by U.S. District Judge John R. Tunheim reads.

In ruling for Zeidman, the federal court also tacked on post-judgment interest that began to accrue since April 2023 — when the arbitration panel first ruled in his favor.

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Last week, the court affirmed that Lindell’s final lawyer had removed himself from the case – without an explanation – by way of an order regarding the still-scheduled late July hearing in the case.

“In light of Respondent’s counsel’s notification that he is no longer able to serve as lead counsel for Respondent, the Court directs counsel for Petitioner to serve a copy of the Court’s Notice of Hearing on Petitioner’s Motion to Compel Responses to Post-Judgment Discovery and a copy of this Order directly on Respondent and file a declaration of service of the same by June 20, 2024,” the court’s June 13 order reads.

In other words, the challenge winner’s counsel was directed to serve notice directly on Lindell’s corporate entity.

On Tuesday, Zeidman’s attorney submitted notice with the court to say he did exactly that – with the company’s general counsel, who is a lawyer, but not the lawyer of record in the ongoing litigation.

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