Mike Lindell Fails to Pay Contest Winner Who Disproved Election Claims

• Mike Lindell owes Robert Zeidman $5 million over a contest to disprove the 2020 election was rigged.
• Zeidman is asking a court docket to implement an arbitration panel choice granting him the $5 million.
• Lindell instructed Insider that Zeidman, a pc scientist, “is not even a cyber man.”

In August 2021, the far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell held a “Show Mike Mistaken” contest.

5 million {dollars}, Lindell stated, would go to any one that may take a look at his trove of “cyber knowledge and packet captures from the 2020 November election” — which he stated reveals that the 2020 presidential election was rigged — and show that it’s “not legitimate knowledge from the November Election.”

Robert Zeidman, a pc scientist who entered the competition, did precisely that.

Lindell refused to pay him. Now he is taking Lindell to court docket to get the $5 million.

“Mr. Zeidman adopted all the pieces to a T,” Zeidman’s legal professional Cary Joshi instructed Insider Friday. “He is a meticulous man.”

Based on an April arbitration panel choice, Zeidman efficiently demonstrated that the info contained generic details about polling locations, was utterly unrelated to the election, or was simply gibberish.

Lindell’s contest judges declined to declare him the winner. In an interview with Insider on Friday, the MyPillow CEO maintained that Zeidman was a part of “a giant cover-up to a a lot larger image” and should not have been allowed within the contest within the first place. The 2020 presidential election was not stolen or rigged.

“Zeidman is not even a cyber man. He did not even have the credentials to be within the contest,” Lindell stated. “That is all a sham, and we’re gonna go to court docket.”

After Lindell refused to award Zeidman the cash, he took the pillow mogul to a binding arbitration, in accordance with the competition guidelines. A panel agreed that Zeidman received the competition honest and sq. together with his evaluation of the info, and instructed Lindell to pay up.

Lindell refused, telling Insider in April that the arbitration panel made a “horrible choice.” Lindell requested a state court docket to vacate the arbitration panel choice, saying the panel “exceeded its powers.”

The MyPillow CEO instructed Insider on Friday that the arbitration choice was “a giant sham” and “a giant setup” and that his legal professionals have been “engaged on” getting the proof to show it.

“These three arbitrators unanimously determined in our favor on each single level,” Joshi stated. “The truth that their petition would not say something is what’s actually shocking. They’ve such an enormous hurdle to beat.”

In a petition filed to federal court docket in Minnesota, first reported by the Washington Submit, Zeidman requested for a judgment within the quantity of $5 million in opposition to Lindell. A judgment would enable Zeidman’s legal professionals to go to the monetary establishments backing Lindell’s firm Lindell Administration LLC and get the cash from them straight.

The petition additionally asks for a further 10% in annual curiosity on the $5 million award, in accordance with Minnesota legislation.

Joshi instructed Insider there is not any foundation for Lindell’s declare that Zeidman shouldn’t have been within the “Show Mike Mistaken” contest.

“It is only a full misunderstanding of the details within the case,” Joshi, Zeidman’s legal professional, stated. “At no level throughout our authorized proceedings did they ever, ever problem the concept Mr. Zeidman did not fulfill regardless of the stipulations have been to have the ability to be part of the competition.”

Lindell maintained his personal petition, filed to state court docket on Thursday, would reveal the reality.

“Mike Lindell just isn’t gonna take this massive sham,” he instructed Insider, talking within the third particular person.

Lindell is individually dealing with defamation lawsuits from Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Methods, two election expertise firms he falsely claimed rigged the 2020 presidential election.

Final month, Fox Corp. and Fox Information agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle Dominion’s separate lawsuit in opposition to them, the most important publicly recognized settlement in a defamation case in US historical past. A part of the litigation involved false statements Lindell made on Fox Information broadcasts.

Lindell instructed Insider Friday he was pissed off that Fox Information caved.

“No matter backdoor deal they made with Dominion was disgusting,” he stated.