Left inset: U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols (U.S. District Court photo). Main: MyPillow CEO and founder Mike Lindell speaks to reporters at his MyPillow factory in the Minneapolis suburb of Shakopee, Minn., on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, as he launches his campaign for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in 2026 (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski).
A Trump-appointed judge in Washington, D.C., has granted Smartmatic's motion to hold MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in civil contempt and force him to pay sanctions for airing "frivolous" 2020 election claims in federal court, the docket shows.
Although U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols' order on Tuesday was sealed, the docket entry did say he granted Smartmatic's motion for contempt, which Law&Crime has reported on in detail:
SEALED ORDER granting Motion [235] Motion for Contempt. Signed by Judge Carl J. Nichols on 3/24/2026. (This document is SEALED and only available to authorized persons.)
Lindell has been on the hook for $56,369 in sanctions since the start of 2025. By March 2025, Smartmatic had already had enough and moved to hold Lindell in civil contempt, telling the judge that the pillow mogul "still has not paid, nor […] meaningfully engaged in any discussions or negotiations regarding the terms of payment."
When the judge asked why he hadn't complied with the order, Lindell repeatedly raised claims of an "inability to pay" the sanctions, including in sealed submissions for the court and Smartmatic to review. Eventually, Lindell claimed his legal team was in flux and that he didn't receive the order.
Smartmatic countered in January by saying that Lindell had the funds to pay but he simply chose not to out of "disregard for this Court's orders, rather than genuine financial hardship."
As evidence that "further contempt sanctions" were warranted, the voting machine company — whose technology was used only in Los Angeles County in 2020, a county Joe Biden easily won in that year's presidential election — pointed to the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by Lindell's legal defense fund and his Minnesota gubernatorial campaign.
Rather than paying Smartmatic, a recent supplemental filing said, Lindell spent $187,037.87 to buy copies of his book "What Are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO" from MyPillow Inc. and give them away on the campaign trail.
Smartmatic argued the spending numbers showed that Lindell could afford the sanctions but decided to "pay his own company and by extension, himself," instead.
As such, the company argued that "[o]nly the threat of contempt will move him to comply[.]"
The contempt motion had asked Nichols to at least issue a "daily penalty" until Lindell paid in full for violating the "clear and unambiguous terms" of the sanctions order, but left open the door for another "appropriate remedy to coerce his compliance." Once the order is unsealed it will become clear just how far Nichols went.
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