Lindell Says He’ll Pay For Recount Of Minnesota Election He Lost Decisively
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell said he would pay for a recount of the Minnesota gubernatorial GOP primary he lost last week by 11 percentage points—despite years of financial troubles from his false claims of voting machine errors in the 2020 election.
Lindell, who refused to concede last week after losing to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, NBC News" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/mike-lindell-plans-pay-recount-losing-minnesota-gop-primary-governor-rcna593447" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">told NBC News on Thursday he would request a recount in the Aug. 11 election and suggested he would pay the $825,000 cost for an audit and said he’s urging his supporters to help him fund the effort.
He predicted costs for a recount could ultimately reach “upwards of $1 million,” according to NBC News.
Lindell, who stepped down as head of MyPillow to run for governor, told the network he has a team of investigators looking at the results and they have already found some “irregularities.”
Lindell has said previously he went broke defending himself in multiple defamation cases filed by voting machine companies for pushing false claims that they engineered the 2020 presidential election to defeat President Donald Trump.
He owes Smartmatic USA Corp. voting machine company a $56,369 judgment, plus the $500 daily late penalties, and told NBC News he doesn’t intend to pay.
He was also ordered to pay a $2.3 million judgment in June last year for defaming former Dominion voting machine company executive Eric Coomer, and as of July, he owed about $48,000 in late property taxes, the Minnesota Reformer reported.
Trump, who wrote on Truth Social ahead of the primary that Lindell “deserves a BIG WIN IN MINNESOTA,” hasn’t commented publicly on Lindell’s loss.
Polls show Democratic nominee Sen. Amy Klobuchar with a wide lead in the general election.
Lindell faced several controversies during the campaign. The Minnesota Republican Party questioned whether Lindell has lived in the state long enough to meet the qualifications for governor. Lindell said he lived in Texas as recently as last year, but moved back to Minnesota before the one-year deadline prior to the Nov. 3 general election to qualify as a candidate. A judge also found probable cause that Lindell may have violated campaign laws by giving out pillows in packaging that said “Mike Lindell for Governor” during a July Fourth parade. Lindell, who stepped down as CEO of MyPillow, settled a $1.3 billion defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems last month after the company sued him for spreading false claims the company rigged the 2020 presidential election.
Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 presidential election, announced in January he would not seek a third term following revelations of a massive welfare and social services fraud scheme. Walz said he was dropping out of the race to focus on his work as governor and deal with the fallout of the fraud scheme. Federal prosecutors have estimated the amount stolen could top $9 billion, a figure Walz has disputed, but has acknowledged could stretch into the billions. Trump and his allies have used the scheme to target Walz’s Democratic administration and the state’s Somali community, as some of the defendants are of Somali descent. The case involves multiple programs that receive public funding across child services, education, daycares and food security.
Law Firm Quits MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s Dominion Lawsuit, Claims Lawyer Filed It Without Permission (Forbes)