In 2021, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell offered $5 million to anyone who could disprove his claim that he had data showing voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n
Now, he must pay a 64-year-old from Nevada that award, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Lindell, a prominent election denier and staunch supporter of former president Donald Trump, claimed to have data showing Chinese interference in the 2020 race. If someone could \u201cProve Mike Wrong,\u201d as the challenge was called, and show the data was unrelated to the election, they would get the payout, Lindell said ahead of an August 2021 \u201ccyber symposium\u201d held in South Dakota where contestants would review the files.<\/p>\n
Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert who voted for Trump twice, did just that, a federal judge in Minnesota determined Wednesday, upholding a previous ruling from a private arbitration panel. Zeidman is owed the $5 million payout plus interest, Judge John Tunheim wrote in his Wednesday ruling. The decision is the latest development in a years-long effort to claim the prize, after Zeidman found that the data was not related to the 2020 election.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for Lindell did not immediately respond to request for comment Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
Zeidman originally took on Lindell\u2019s challenge because \u201ceither way, I thought it would be a historic event,\u201d he told The Washington Post on Wednesday. He said he is not sure he will actually receive the payout since Lindell can appeal Wednesday\u2019s decision. But Zeidman, who is active in Republican politics, said he hopes those following the case understand that Lindell\u2019s data was not related to the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting the truth out is the most important thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In recent years, Lindell has been embroiled in legal and financial troubles, including a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over false election claims.<\/p>\n
The 2021 symposium was one of several ways Lindell amplified election-fraud falsehoods after Trump\u2019s 2020 loss, The Post previously reported. To receive the challenge\u2019s $5 million prize, Lindell asked his symposium participants to prove that the data \u201cunequivocally does NOT reflect information related to the November 2020 election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zeidman reviewed files during the three-day symposium, which he said friends had convinced him to attend.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would be fun and exciting to be part of it,\u201d Zeidman said. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect that I\u2019d be the one so wrapped up in it and coming to the conclusion that I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zeidman found that the data did not prove election interference. He later testified during arbitration proceedings that the files he had been given as part of the \u201cProve Mike Wrong\u201d challenge seemed to be random numbers and letters. One included a flow chart on how elections work and another listed IP addresses, Zeidman said during his testimony.<\/p>\n
Zeidman compiled a 15-page report of his findings and sent a letter to Lindell\u2019s firm asking for the reward. He filed for arbitration the next month after Lindell Management denied his payment request, and a private arbitration panel ruled that Zeidman \u2014 the only participant who had submitted a claim \u2014 had proved that the data was not related to the 2020 election. The panel required Lindell Management to pay Zeidman within 30 days.<\/p>\n
The payment never arrived, and in May 2023, Zeidman asked a federal court to confirm his arbitration award. Shortly after, Lindell filed for its dismissal.<\/p>\n
But the chances of a confirmation were in Zeidman\u2019s favor, said his attorney, Brian Glasser. Under the Federal Arbitration Act, arbitration rulings are upheld unless they are found to be obtained by \u201ccorruption, fraud or undue means.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Court\u2019s responsibility in reviewing an arbitration award is not to reevaluate the merits but rather ensure that the panel acted appropriately,\u201d Tunheim wrote in Wednesday\u2019s ruling, adding that while Lindell Management\u2019s \u201cargument may be a compelling alternative interpretation,\u201d the arbitration review standard \u201ddoes not weigh competing interpretations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s ruling, Zeidman said, made him feel \u201ca little more optimistic\u201d about receiving the $5 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think chances are probably small that I\u2019ll see it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut again, I wish people would get the lesson that it\u2019s okay to challenge your own beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Dehghanpoor, Emma Brown and Jon Swaine contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In 2021, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell offered $5 million to anyone who could disprove his claim that he had data showing voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Now, he must pay a 64-year-old from Nevada that award, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. Lindell, a prominent election denier and staunch supporter of former president Donald […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}