WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump, who is trying to fend off a libel suit from a polling station he falsely accused of rigging the 2020 election.
Michael Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and a regular at Trump rallies, is fighting a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed in federal court by US Dominion, the company that manufactures voting machines used in several states. battlefield are used.
Lindell’s attempt was denied last year by a Trump-appointed judge in the US district. When Lindell appealed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the case was not ready for review. Lindell asked the Supreme Court to rule that he could appeal immediately to avoid “long and expensive” court proceedings.
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Lindell argues that the U.S. Dominion has failed to meet the standard for defamation charges set forth in the landmark 1964 New York Times Co. court ruling. v. Sullivan. In particular, he claimed that the company had not proven that it knew its comments were false or that they were spoken with a reckless disregard for truth or falsehood.
The lower federal court disagreed.
For starters, a reasonable juror might conclude that the existence of a major international conspiracy ignored by the government but proven by a spreadsheet on an internet blog is so inherently improbable that only a reckless man would believe it. the American district. Judge Carl Nichols wrote in his opinion.
The company, Nichols wrote, “conclusively asserted that Lindell made its claims with the knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.”
The case is MyPillow v. US Dominion.
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This Article Originally Appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court Won’t Hear MyPillow CEO Case Over Defamation Charge
