Supreme Court Lets Mike Lindell Off Hook for $5M

Mike Lindell can hang on to $5 million thanks to the US Supreme Court—without the justices saying a word. On Monday, the court declined to hear Robert Zeidman v. Lindell Management, leaving in place a lower-court ruling that says Lindell doesn't have to pay a $5 million "Prove Mike Wrong" prize tied to his 2020 election claims, Law and Crime reports. The challenge, launched at a 2021 election fraud "Cyber Symposium" in South Dakota, promised a payout to anyone who could show that Lindell's purported data about Chinese interference in the election was bogus. Software developer and Trump voter Bob Zeidman did exactly that, an arbitration panel found, and was awarded the money. A federal judge upheld that award in February 2024.

But in July, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed it, focusing not on election facts but contract wording. The appeals court said the arbitration panel improperly relied on outside material—like Lindell's promotional language about "packet capture" (PCAP) data—to interpret the contest rules. Those written rules never mentioned packet captures. The judges concluded that under Minnesota law, unambiguous contracts must be interpreted solely by their text, and the panel went beyond that, exceeding its authority.

In practical terms, the court held that while Zeidman showed Lindell's data did not support hacking claims and wasn't PCAP data, he had not proven under the contract's actual wording that it wasn't related to the election at all. Zeidman called the decision "bad for America" in a Slate op-ed last year, and asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on whether courts can overturn arbitration awards for "manifest disregard of the law." By declining his petition, the justices left that question unresolved—and left Lindell off the hook for the $5 million. That doesn't mean he's completely free of financial troubles; in November, a far-right podcaster sued Lindell for allegedly failing to repay a $3 million loan, Colorado Newsline reports. In other recent Lindell news, President Trump said the MyPillow CEO "deserves to be governor of Minnesota," CBS News reports.