Law and Crime reports the top contender in the field to win the Republican primary for Minnesota governor is currently fleeing his court costs.
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“Four years have passed since this Court determined Lindell owes monetary sanctions to Smartmatic,” claim lawyers for Smartmatic, but the candidate “has yet to make any payment […] pursuant to the sanction order.”
That candidate is none other than MAGA maven and President Donald Trump ally Mike Lindell, who a federal judge subjected to a daily civil contempt fine for not paying a cent in sanctions owed to voting machine company Smartmatic over a period of several years.
After all that time, Law and Crime reports the company’s lawyers have tallied the damage of Lindell’s neglect and are asking for even more.
“In a brief notice filed before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, Smartmatic said it has been 72 days since the Donald Trump-appointed jurist ordered a $500 ‘daily penalty’ in an attempt to force the 2020 election conspiracy theorist and detractor of all electronic voting machines to pay $56,369 in sanctions in full,” reports Law and Crime. “Nichols’ sanctions order goes back to 2022, when Lindell was found to have filed ‘frivolous’ counterclaims against Smartmatic.”
The company now reports that Lindell still hasn’t paid “any” sanctions — meaning the daily fine is failing to coerce his compliance. According to Smartmatic, Lindell has racked up $36,000 in contempt fines since April, which brings his new grand total to $92,369.
Frustrated company lawyers are also now insisting the judge agree to raise “civil contempt penalties to a greater amount” to encourage the gubernatorial candidate to stop being a deadbeat.
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Lindell recently tried to convince the court that he has a “negative $18.7 million” net worth due to his liabilities. But Smartmatic was quick to point out that Lindell clearly has cash because he spent more than $187K of his own Minnesota gubernatorial campaign funds just to buy copies of his own book and give them away.
The court’s Trump-appointed judge consequently declared that Lindell was misstating his claims and in fact had enough assets and access to funds to pay his sanctions — but was simply refusing to do so.
Republicans in the state are leery of Lindell’s race, and they fear the controversial Republican propaganda channel owner will ruin their plan to take the Minnesota governor’s office if he wins the primary.
“We’d be cooked,” said Dustin Grage, a Minnesota Republican strategist. “I’d be moving to Florida very shortly. We would lose pretty badly if Mike Lindell were to get the nomination.”
Nevertheless, Lindell is on the top of the Republican primary, according to a June survey by KSTP/SurveyUSA, revealing he has 27 percent of Republican respondents backing him.
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