By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) -Donald Trump ally and MyPillow.com chief executive Mike Lindell on Wednesday persuaded a U.S. appeals court to throw out a judge’s order requiring him to pay $5 million to a software developer who said he debunked Lindell’s 2020 election fraud claims.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said an arbitration panel improperly interpreted the rules of a contest Lindell set up and oversaw challenging anyone to disprove his claims that Trump won the election.
The appeals court panel reversed a federal judge who last year confirmed the arbitrators’ 2023 award to Robert Zeidman.
A lawyer for Zeidman, Brian Glasser, in a statement said the 8th Circuit’s ruling contradicted the “unanimous contrary decision of three arbitrators who heard all the evidence, including one appointed by Mr. Lindell.”
MyPillow general counsel Jeremiah Pilon in a statement welcomed the court’s ruling for Lindell, “especially considering the extraordinary rarity of arbitration award reversals.”
Lindell was among many Trump allies who advanced claims of fraud in the 2020 election that were rejected by multiple courts.
In 2021, Lindell created the “Prove Mike Wrong” challenge as part of an effort to establish that Democrat Joe Biden owed his election win over Trump to foreign interference.
Contestants were asked to prove data on 11 files provided by Lindell were not “related to” the election.
The private judges overseeing the challenge did not declare a winner. Zeidman later convinced an arbitration panel that he deserved the $5 million award.
Circuit Judges James Loken, Lavenski Smith and L. Steven Grasz concluded on Wednesday that the arbitration panel improperly amended the contest’s contract terms, putting new obligations on Lindell concerning the data at issue.
“Fair or not, agreed-to contract terms may not be modified by the panel or by this court,” the appeals court said.
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella; Editing by David Bario)
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