A federal appeals court on Wednesday unanimously decided to nullify Mike Lindell‘s $5 million payment to a software developer who sought to disprove the MyPillow CEO’s claims of foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election.
A three-judge panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled that an arbitration panel exceeded its authority in 2023 when it awarded $5 million to Robert Zeidman. Lindell offered the substantial prize at a 2021 “Cyber Symposium” event in South Dakota, where he challenged anyone to refute his data that alleged Chinese election interference in 2020.
Accepting the challenge, Zeidman produced a 15-page report that claimed otherwise. The contest judges withheld the $5 million prize, prompting the contestant to bring the dispute into arbitration.
The arbitration court sided with Zeidman. However, in doing so, it misconstrued the contractual language of the contest rules in favor of Zeidman’s case.
The appeals court concluded that the contract terms, which required contestants to “unequivocally” disprove Lindell’s cyber data, were unambiguous.
“Whatever one might think of the logic of the panel’s reasoning, it is contrary to Minnesota law,” U.S. Circuit Judge James Loken wrote, ordering a lower court to vacate the award. “Fair or not, agreed-to contract terms may not be modified by the panel or by this court.”
The arbitration panel agreed with Zeidman that Lindell did not provide packet capture data, which the software developer said proved it was not data from the 2020 election. A federal district judge backed the arbitration panel’s ruling last year, but the appeals court reversed that decision.
“We conclude that the panel effectively amended the unambiguous Challenge contract when it used extrinsic evidence to require that the data provided was packet capture data, thereby violating established principles of Minnesota contract law and our arbitration precedents,” Loken wrote. “Accordingly, we reverse the grant of Zeidman’s motion to confirm because ‘the arbitrators exceeded their powers.’”
Lindell took a victory lap after winning his appeal.
“It’s a great day for our country,” the pillow salesman and Trump ally told the Associated Press. “This is a big win. It opens the door to getting rid of these electronic voting machines and getting paper ballots, hand-counted.”
Zeidman’s attorney defended the arbitration panel’s decision in response to the new opinion.
Brian Glasser urged people to “judge for themselves if the Eighth Circuit’s decision today is more persuasive, or rings in truth louder, than the unanimous contrary decision of three arbitrators who heard all the evidence, including one appointed by Mr. Lindell.”
MIKE LINDELL TO PAY $2.3 MILLION TO FORMER EMPLOYEE OF LEADING VOTING COMPANY FOR DEFAMATION
Wednesday’s ruling comes one month after Lindell lost a defamation case brought by a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems. A federal jury in Colorado ordered Lindell to pay $2.3 million in damages to Eric Coomer, whom the MyPillow founder accused of treason.
Lindell said he is appealing that decision as he awaits the verdict for a separate defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion in 2021. The voting machine company is seeking $1.3 billion in damages.