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Deadbeat MAGA Candidate Mike Lindell owes $ 92,369 in unpaid court costs & $ 1.5 Billion to Smartmatic

AlterNet reports:

By Adam Lynch

Law and Crime reports the top contender in the field to win the Republican primary for Minnesota governor is currently fleeing his court costs.

"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.

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.

My comments:

On top of those court costs and legal fees, he also owes Smartmatic $ 1.5 Billion in damages. Plus, AFAIK, he’s never paid that cyber expert who disapproved his 2020 national election lies ( cool $ 5 million).

How about it Minnesota MAGAs—do you want this deadbeat to be your next governor?
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As of June 2026, a jury has not yet determined the final total of damages that Mike Lindell must pay to Smartmatic in their primary defamation case. However, the voting technology company has explicitly stated they are pursuing "nine-figure damages" (hundreds of millions of dollars), and Lindell has already incurred minor court-ordered financial penalties in the ongoing dispute.

The current legal and financial standing of the case involves several key elements:
Defamation Liability Ruling: A federal judge in Minnesota ruled that Mike Lindell legally defamed Smartmatic by making 51 distinct false statements claiming their machines rigged the 2020 presidential election.

The judge granted partial summary judgment after concluding there was zero evidence to back his claims. However, the specific questions of financial damages and whether Lindell acted with "actual malice" have been deferred to a jury trial.

Active Sanctions and Contempt Fines: While the main damages are still pending trial, Lindell has been hit with immediate financial penalties for his conduct during the lawsuit:

$56,369 Sanction: Lindell was ordered to pay this amount to Smartmatic to cover their legal fees after he brought a "frivolous" counter-lawsuit against the company.

$500-Per-Day Contempt Fine: In April 2026, a federal judge held Lindell in civil contempt for refusing to pay the $56k sanction. He faces a $500 daily penalty until the debt is resolved in full.Lindell's Financial ClaimsIn court hearings regarding these fines,

Lindell pleaded that he is "in ruins" and completely out of money, claiming he has maxed out loans, laid off hundreds of MyPillow employees, and cannot afford the court-ordered payments. The judge rejected this excuse, noting that Lindell failed to provide actual proof of a negative net worth and has continued to successfully raise money through various crowdsourced "legal defense funds.”

Context of Other Defamation Damages: Though the Smartmatic damages trial is still ahead, Lindell faced a jury in a separate 2025 election defamation case involving a Dominion Voting Systems executive. In that case, the jury ordered Lindell and his media network to pay $2.3 million in damages.

 
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