The embattled MyPillow CEO and election denier Mike Lindell told a judge this week that his legal troubles have left him without liquid cash.
Voting software company Smartmatic filed a motion to hold Lindell in contempt last month, alleging that he has been dodging a court-ordered payment for months.
“I’m in ruins,” he told U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols of his financial situation, during a hearing Wednesday in Washington, D.C., according to ABC News. Back in January, Nichols ordered Lindell to pay Smartmatic more than $50,000 over unfounded claims against the company.
In an interview Thursday with the Minnesota Star Tribune, Lindell said that his attorney called the hearing because Smartmatic was using dated numbers to assess what he could pay.
“I don’t have any liquid cash laying around,” Lindell said. “They got their numbers back in 2021 or 2022, before I spent all the money helping to save this country, fighting these voting machine companies.”
Smartmatic is concerned about its ability to collect “the fees and costs incurred in defending itself,” according to a company court filing on Wednesday. Lindell said he’s taking home a small wage rather than the extravagant CEO salary that the company is alleging.
Chaska-based MyPillow took out several high-interest loans last year as the company’s bills piled up and traditional funding sources grew scarce. Court filings have called MyPillow a “cash-strapped” company, which has also faced numerous eviction filings over late rent and lawsuits over unpaid bills.
The pillow maker was dropped by many major retailers after Lindell launched his election fraud campaign following the 2020 election.
