Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images
- Dominion Voting Systems settled defamation lawsuits ahead of its sale to Liberty Vote.
- It’s still suing My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell and ex-Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.
- Lindell told Business Insider he won’t stop litigating until all voting machines are “melted down.”
Mike Lindell isn’t getting a soft landing.
On Thursday, Liberty Vote acquired Dominion Voting Systems, the election technology company that scored a mammoth $787.5 million settlement in its defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
In the weeks ahead of the acquisition, Dominion quietly settled other defamation lawsuits against others who falsely alleged the company rigged the 2020 election against President Donald Trump.
In late September, it reached settlements with Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, each of whom it had sued for $1.3 billion. Earlier this month, it also settled its $1.6 billion defamation against One America News.
The terms of those three settlements were not disclosed — a contrast to the 2023 Fox News settlement, which came just before opening statements at a Delaware trial and featured a lengthy press conference, as well as a $67 million settlement with Newsmax earlier this year.
Dominion has not yet wrapped up all of its defamation lawsuits.
According to court records, Dominion is still suing Mike Lindell, the My Pillow CEO, who alleges the company manipulated votes. It’s also still suing Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, who is in his own legal battle with the company.
In an interview on Thursday, Lindell, who countersued Dominion, said he is not aware of any offers from Dominion or Liberty Vote to settle their legal disputes.
He has poured tens of millions of dollars into his own legal challenges against election technology companies, and he said he will not rest until every voting machine in the United States is “melted down.”
“The computers need to go, or we lose our country,” Lindell told Business Insider. “They all need to be melted down and turned into prison bars.”
In July, a Colorado jury found he defamed former Dominion executive Eric Coomer. And last month, a Minnesota judge ruled that he defamed Smartmatic, a rival election technology company that was also the subject of 2020 conspiracy theories.
Axios first reported the news of the Dominion acquisition.
Rich Chrismer, a spokesperson for Liberty Vote, Dominion’s new owner, didn’t respond to questions about the settlements and ongoing lawsuits.
Stephanie Lambert, an attorney for Byrne, told Business Insider that the businessman is “looking forward to a trial.”
Liberty Vote is run by Scott Leiendecker, who previously served on the St. Louis City Board of Elections as the Republican director. According to his LinkedIn, he oversaw the first parliamentary election in Kosovo in 2010.
“As of today, Dominion is gone,” the company said in a press release on Thursday. “Liberty Vote assumes full ownership and operational control.”
The press release said Leiendecker’s mission was to “restore public confidence in the electoral process through transparent, secure, and trustworthy voting systems, including the use of hand-marked paper ballots.”
Lindell told Business Insider that Leiendecker’s history of working as a Republican election director would not halt his mission to end the existence of all voting machines in America, including those that count paper ballots.
“You put down that I was very defiant, and I will not back down,” Lindell said. “And just because there’s some new owner, that he’s going to come and say, ‘Oh, Mike, if we drop this, will you be a good boy and not talk about the machines?’ It ain’t happening.”
Dominion’s 2023 settlement with Fox News remains the largest publicly known defamation settlement. It was also a financial win for Staple Street Capital, which snagged a 1,442% return on its 76% investment in Dominion at the time.
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