Mike Lindell, the owner and spokesman for MyPillow, will have his hands full defending a libel suit now that a federal court in Minnesota denied his motion to dismiss a libel action filed by the Smartmatic voting machine company. Lindell failed to convince the court he acted without actual malice.

Los Angeles County engaged Smartmatic for the use of Smartmatic’s technology, software, equipment and services to count and report the votes cast in Los Angeles County in the 2020 election. Smartmatic did not provide election support to any other United States county or state during the 2020 election. Los Angeles County experienced no serious problems during the 2020 election, and no questions were raised about security or the reliability or auditability of the results in Los Angeles County.

According to Smartmatic, when President Trump lost the 2020 election and began to contest its result, Lindell began to publicly promote the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen, announcing that the voting machines had been hacked and rigged in favor of President Biden and Vice President Harris. Lindell claimed to have scientific, mathematical and forensic “100% proof” that the voting machines were used to perpetrate election fraud. Lindell created and published a series of documentary videos that purported to provide evidence and facts substantiating his theory that the voting technology of Smartmatic and two other election technology companies, ES&S and Dominion, stole the 2020 election.

Smartmatic decided to get even rather than mad and filed a defamation complaint in federal court in Minnesota. The case was assigned to Judge Wilhelmina Wright, a Barack Obama appointee. Under Minnesota law, a corporation is a public figure, which means it was required to establish that Lindell made his comments with “actual malice.” The “actual malice” standard requires a plaintiff