Lindell ordered to pay $5M to expert who debunked 2020 election data

Mike Lindell was ordered to pay $5 million to a software developer who determined the MyPillow CEO's data provided to experts was not related to the 2020 presidential election. 

CNN reported Thursday that an arbitration panel awarded Robert Zeidman - who voted for former President Donald Trump - a $5 million payout Wednesday after he sued Lindell for the millions promised as part of a 'Prove Mike Wrong Challenge.' 

Lindell has been one of the most vocal proponents of the conspiracy theory that  Trump was robbed of a second term in office due to widespread election fraud. 

The MyPillow founder had peddled a data set that he said proved election meddling. 

Lindell hosted a 'cyber symposium' in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 2021 to have experts examine the data and launched the 'Prove Mike Wrong Challenge,' promising a $5 million payout to anyone who could prove the data wasn't from the 2020 presidential election. 

Zeidman signed up and agreed to the contractual terms.

Mike Lindell was ordered to pay $5 million to a software developer who determined the MyPillow CEO's data provided to experts was not related to the 2020 presidential election

Lindell has been one of the most vocal proponents of the conspiracy theory that Trump was robbed of a second term in office due to widespread election fraud

He found that the data wasn't related to the 2020 election as Lindell had claimed. 

But then Lindell's company, Lindell Management, refused to pay him. 

'The Contest did not require participants to disprove election interference. Thus, the contestants' task was to prove the data presented to them was not valid data from the November 2020 election,' the arbitration panel wrote. 

'The Panel was not asked to decide whether China interfered in the 2020 election. Nor was the Panel asked to decide whether Lindell LLC possessed data that proved such interference, or even whether Lindell LLC had election data in its possession,' the decision continued. 'The focus of the decision is on the 11 files provided to Mr. Zeidman in the context of the Contest rules.' 

Zeidman told The Washington Post he was 'really happy' with the panel's decision. 

'They clearly saw this as I did - that the data we were given at the symposium was not at all what Mr. Lindell said it was.' 

'The truth is finally out there,' Zeidman added.

Lindell texted The Post saying, 'They made a terribly wrong decision! This will be going to court!' 

Zeidman's lawyer Brian Glasser told the paper that the panel's decision should be a warning to those making wild election fraud claims. 

'I think the arbitrators thought it important that these claims be vetted, because they've done great harm to our country,' Glasser told The Post. 

It's unclear if Lindell will be able to pay Zeidman, as he told Trump's longtime political strategist Steve Bannon that his company took out $10 million in loans to fend off election fraud-related defamation lawsuits. 

Earlier this week another major election fraud defamation case - with Dominion Voting Systems suing Fox News - was settled for $787.5 million ahead of a planned trial in Wilmington, Delaware.