Mike Lindell’s lawyers in election defamation cases seek to quit over millions of dollars in unpaid legal fees

By Liam Reilly, CNN

(CNN) — Attorneys representing conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell and his company MyPillow in a defamation lawsuits brought by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic have asked to withdraw from both cases after Lindell allegedly racked up millions in unpaid legal fees.

In a court filings, Minnesota-based Parker Daniels Kibort said both Lindell and MyPillow have not paid the firm for its work on the case and won’t be able to pay future fees and costs.

“On October 2, 2023, [the law firm] was informed by Defendants that they are not able to get caught up with or make any payment on the large amount they owe in arrears nor pay for anywhere near the estimated expense of continuing to defend against the lawsuits going forward, including either the legal fees or litigation costs,” the filing stated.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Lindell acknowledged he has not paid the attorneys for the last two or three months, adding that he did not know who would next represent him in the case. But Lindell was adamant that he would not settle with Dominion or Smartmatic, another election technology company suing him for defamation.

“Not in a million years,” he said.

Dominion — the election technology company that has been the subject of debunked right-wing conspiracy theories about voting fraud in the 2020 election — sued MyPillow and Lindell in 2021 for $1.3 billion over his repeated allegations that Dominion rigged its machines to hand Joe Biden a victory over Donald Trump.

Smartmatic similarly sued Lindell for defamation, alleging that he lied about the firm’s role in the 2020 election for his own financial gain.

MyPillow, a prolific advertiser on the right-wing cable channel Fox News, which also promoted the false election conspiracy theories, began losing money following Dominion’s lawsuit to such an extent that MyPillow is unable to pay their legal bills today, Lindell told CNN.

Lindell and MyPillow, who were notified of their attorneys’ intent to withdraw on Thursday, said they would not oppose the move, and “understand the need to withdraw due to the lack of funds,” the court filing shows.

The court must grant the attorneys’ motion to withdraw before they can formally drop Lindell and MyPillow as clients.

Attorneys for Dominion did not have a position regarding the motion when it was filed, the court filing shows. Dominion and Smartmatic did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment.

Speaking on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program on Thursday, Lindell blamed his financial troubles on “attacks on MyPillow” that had been “devastating” to the company’s credit.

“I — can’t pay the lawyers. We can’t pay. There’s no money left to pay them,” he said. “I don’t know where that leaves us.”

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