(Strib has the story, but it's paywalled, so other links will be given.)
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| Wardlow, on the left, during an earlier campaign. Image source. |
Microsoft Start carries the Strib story, un-paywalled.
Quoting opening paragraphs:
MINNEAPOLIS — MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has turned to in-house corporate counsel to defend him and his company against Smartmatic's defamation claim in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, according to a court filing Friday.
Doug Wardlow, who ran twice for state attorney general, filed formal notice that he and fellow MyPillow counsel Jeremiah Pilon will represent Lindell in the case. Wardlow didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
Lindell recently said he has run out of money to pay his lawyers and has no plans to file for bankruptcy protection. In early October, the Minneapolis-based Parker Daniels Kibort law firm formally filed to withdraw from this and other election-related defamation cases, saying Lindell owed it millions but had stopped making payments.
After the 2020 presidential election, Lindell was a chief peddler of the false claim that widespread fraud caused by voting machines delivered a victory to Joe Biden over President Donald Trump.
Smartmatic USA Corp. sued for defamation in January 2022. Dominion Voting Systems, a voting software company, had filed a similar lawsuit in the previous February. And in 2022, Eric Coomer, a former Dominion employee, said in a lawsuit that he had received death threats after Lindell publicly attacked him.
London-based Smartmatic is an international company that builds voting machines. Its lawsuit alleges Lindell falsely claimed that Smartmatic manipulated votes across the United States, including in states where the company's technology wasn't used. [...]
All of this is happening because Lindall drank too much MAGA Koolaid.
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| Lindall with MAGA enabler. (image source: westernjournal.) |
Reporting only mentions Wardlow's representation re Smartmatic litigation. With Lindall now stressed for money the representation will be more difficult. Lindall should generate a Go Fund Me page. It might help.
Wardlow's handling of the case may prove interesting. Crabgrass wishes the effort well. It is unclear what role, if any, Wardlow may have in the lawsuit mentioned in the report as filed by Lindall's former lawyers which claims unpaid millions of pre-trial fees owed.
Wardlow, after graduating from law school, worked for a firm founded by Minnesota conservative attorney Andrew Parker, who also founded the firm now suing Lindall for the claimed unpaid millions in pre-trial fees. Minnesota Republicans can really generate a looping story when they try. Readers may remember Parker as representing Karen Monahan who asserted mistreatment against Attorney General Ellison at a time Wardlow was running against Ellison for the AG office. An interesting possibility, if Lindall were to confess judgment in the Parker fees owed case, before any other litigation goes to a judgment, or if the firm obtains a summary judgment lien priority, the lawyers would appear to have a favorable bankruptcy judgment creditor priority position; an outcome which might distress other litigants against Lindall, should they in turn attain subsequent judgment liens.
__________UPDATE_________
A quick and not comprehensive web search found this May 19, 2022, federal court item as a most recent development in Lindall's litigation; a memorandum and order dismissing Lindall counterclaims and Third Party Claims against Dominion and against Smartmatic. This suggests the litigation likely is still pending pre-trial, as assumed in the above posting. See, also, this Aug. 2021 item. See also, this web search, indicating October, 2022, activity.
There is this also, and it is believed the May 19, 2022, item noted above was appealed by Lindall.
Crabgrass found no indication if a trial date has been set for any of Lindall's litigation. The guess is it is unlikely that a trial date is immediately pressing in any of it.
When Wardlow's campaign was fined forty-six grand by the Campaign Finance Board in a CONCILIATION AGREEMENT dated June, 2019, neither Parker nor his then current firm represented Wardlow. Richard Morgan of a different firm handled that. Morgan has also represented the Republican Party of Minnesota on occasion and is or has been Treasurer of Freedom Club.
___________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Not being able to access Pacer, Crabgrass found this August, 2023, Order on Motion to Compel. showing the litigation is still in the discovery phase, where no corresponding Docket was found, so, latest item suggests Motion to Withdraw is made at the discovery stage, with Wardlow substituted or to be substituted as counsel of record for Lindall/My Pillow. Nowhere near a trial. Doug can navigate discovery matters for a while, so might Parker's law firm sue for fees owed on a contract, in Minnesots state court, since the contract parties are domiciled here, and where there would be no need to involve Dominion nor Smartmatic as parties?
A Minnesota Judgment could result in favor of Parker and his firm before much more happens in federal court. Precisely how such a possibility would affect creditor rights and priorities in a possible subsequent bankruptcy proceeding is something a bankruptcy expert practitioner might be able to answer for us. So far, no creditor filing to force a bankruptcy exists, as best as Crabgrass could find online, nor has Lindall or My Pillow filed, as best as Crabgrass could find.