Attorneys for Mike Lindell want out, citing millions owed in defamation defense

MINNEAPOLIS (CN)— MyPillow founder and “stop the steal” proponent Mike Lindell is on the hunt for new counsel to defend him against claims of defamation brought by voting-machine maker Smartmatic after failing to pay his current attorneys. 

Attorney Andrew Parker, a partner at Minneapolis-based law firm Parker Daniels Kibort, filed a motion to withdraw as Lindell’s attorney Thursday afternoon with a declaration saying that Lindell and his company are “in arrears millions of dollars” to his firm and had been behind on bills for much of the year. 

Lindell, who came to national prominence with the success of his Chaska, Minnesota-based pillow company and became still more visible through outspoken support of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and tenure, began running into legal issues when that support extended to platforming and supporting efforts to discredit Trump’s 2020 election loss. 

Voting-machine makers Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic filed defamation actions against Lindell early in 2021, pointing to statements Lindell made on a number of conservative talk shows as falsely denigrating their businesses. Both companies have sought upwards of $1 billion from Lindell, saying that he has “irreparably” damaged their reputation and jeopardized their contracts with state and local governments. 

In the declaration, Parker said Lindell and MyPillow had paid his 16-attorney firm for its representation in those suits in a timely manner throughout 2021 and 2022, but began falling behind in 2023. By May, he wrote, payments were coming in less than once every two months, and were only partial. 

“Forcing PDK to continue funding Defendants’ defense in the above-captioned matter through the conclusion of this billion-dollar litigation would place PDK in serious financial risk,” Parker wrote, “and could threaten the very existence of the firm.” 

He added that an additional out-of-state attorney, Nathan Lewin of Lewin & Lewin in Washington, was also withdrawing from the case because of money owed to him by MyPillow. The exact amount owed to Lindell’s attorneys was not clear in court documents. 

Lindell and MyPillow, Parker noted in the declaration, had been made aware of their attorneys’ withdrawal and “have indicated that they understand PDK’s position, do not object, and are in the process of finding new counsel.” 

U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright is handling Smartmatic's case against Lindell in the District of Minnesota. She will need to approve Parker's withdrawal, but no date has yet been set for a hearing on the issue.

Lindell has been publicly outspoken about his financial troubles and those of MyPillow. He has claimed the company lost some $100 million in annual revenue after several major retailers, including Walmart, dropped his products from their stores in response to his public statements. MyPillow also began selling off equipment and subleasing manufacturing space this year, which Lindell billed as part of a transition toward more direct sales. 

Lindell has also attracted the attention of the FBI, which seized his cellphone at a Hardee’s drive-thru last year as part of an investigation into alleged misconduct by a Trump-supporting Colorado election clerk. A civil rights suit Lindell brought against the FBI following that incident — in which PDK also represented Lindell, alongside retired Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz — was dismissed last year, and gained no traction on appeal to the Eighth Circuit. 

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