Mike Lindell has said he acted "out of character" after footage of the MyPillow CEO reacting furiously to being accused of producing "lumpy pillows" at a court deposition in March went viral on social media.
The clip appeared to be from footage recorded on March 8, during the first deposition in a defamation case brought against Lindell by Eric Coomer, the former chief executive of Dominion Voting Systems. The company provided voting machines used in the 2020 presidential election and some Donald Trump supporters, including Lindell, have been accused of spreading discredited claims that these were used in a plot to rig the results in favor of Joe Biden.
"You can attack me I can take that I can take it, you start attacking my pillow, my employees I got a big problem with that," he told presenter Alex Jones on Monday.
During the March deposition, Lindell erupted after Charles Cain, one of Coomer's attorneys, suggested he had received "lumpy pillow calls," in apparent reference to MyPillow products. He responded: "No, they're not lumpy pillows, that's not what they call on.
"When you say lumpy pillows, now you're an a******, you got that? You're an a****** is what you are!"
Lindell went on to call Cain an "ambulance-chasing a******" adding: "Nobody calls because of a lumpy pillow."
On Monday, Lindell discussed his outburst during an appearance on Alex Jones' InfoWars show, commenting: "I lost my cool on that one... that's the one I swore in, that's how mad I was. I was out of character by doing that."
He continued: "For them to leak it, it backfired on them Alex. They released all these tapes that they shouldn't have, all these clips that they sound bit from these three depositions, not just one."
Lindell also hit out at Cain as well as another Dominion attorney, and accused Coomer of making strange faces during the deposition. He told Jones: "You have the same criminal crooked lawyers and this guy making faces at me, the guy Eric Coomer, the guy that's actually suing me, I didn't even know who this guy was, he's making faces and doing this stuff, you don't see him in the camera but I'll tell you what."
Tensions apparently remained high during the second deposition on March 9, when Lindell described Cain as "evil" and said he would be "sued big" for damage done to MyPillow. After the final deposition that took place on August 23, Coomer's legal team filed a motion to sanction him, apparently because Lindell left the room saying he was going to appear on the War Room podcast hosted by former Trump aide Steve Bannon.
The videos were released as part of the motion, with Coomer's legal team saying they were "demonstrably worse than any attempt to describe the conduct" of Lindell.
Speaking to Newsweek after the March deposition footage appeared online Lindell said: "The evil lawyer attacked MyPillow and my employees...that's the part you media people are ignoring!! You are as bad as them for what you are all doing to our country!"
He added: "They attacked my employees and MyPillow...evil evil and evil."
Newsweek has contacted Charles Cain for comment by email.
In April, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems more than $700 million to settle a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit. This was launched after Fox News presenters and guests falsely suggested the company's machines were used to rig the 2020 presidential election in Biden's favor.
