MAGA ally's DOJ bailout plan smashes into wall that could sink pillow empire

MyPillow founder Mike Lindell promised a creditor a share of a Justice Department weaponization payout, but the creditor's lawyer swore he has seen no evidence that any claim was filed.

ACI International, a California slipper supplier, asked a federal judge in Minnesota to dismiss MyPillow's lawsuit or send it to California, in a motion filed Aug. 31.

MyPillow sued in January after ACI placed a levy on its Amazon account, the motion says.

ACI was collecting a $15,408,008.84 default judgment entered in Los Angeles in December that MyPillow has never appealed or paid, according to the filing. The company has told the court the levy could force it out of business.

"I am not aware of any evidence that My Pillow has submitted a claim relating to 'Arctic Frost' to any governmental agency, or that any recovery on any such claim has been made or is owed to My Pillow," Michael Wallin, ACI's California attorney, wrote in a sworn declaration filed the same day.

The security agreement Lindell signed on Jan. 21 put MyPillow's debt at $15.4 million and defined the collateral behind it as "all funds recovered by My Pillow by any means as a result of Arctic Frost," Wallin wrote.

Arctic Frost was the FBI investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and Lindell has said in court filings that it targeted MyPillow and caused the company's financial losses, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported in July.

MyPillow would pay the debt in full if it won a settlement above $50 million, and 80 percent of what it owed if the settlement came in lower, according to Court Watch.

ACI never signed the document, and the signature line left for the company was blank, Wallin wrote.

The next morning, he told his client not to countersign it, according to the declaration.

"Not yet. We need to draft an agreement for them to countersign. Their agreement was insufficient," ACI executive vice president Anna Liau replied that morning after the company's president asked whether the levy had been lifted.

ACI's own draft, sent the next day, would have required MyPillow to prove by Feb. 28 that Lindell had met with President Donald Trump to discuss Arctic Frost, Wallin wrote.

The declaration also required proof that the company had submitted its claim documents to the government.

Lindell told ACI's chairman he would meet with the president on Feb. 18, the company said in its motion.

MyPillow's lawyer replied "Thank you" to those draft documents, Wallin wrote. Fifty-three minutes later, Lindell emailed ACI's president a copy of the lawsuit.

Lindell and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from Court Watch.

Lindell is running for governor of Minnesota as a Republican with Trump's endorsement, and MyPillow faces more than $25 million in creditor claims, the Star Tribune reported.

"I'm going to be turning it in sooner than later," Lindell told Law&Crime in May, referring to a claim he said he would file on MyPillow's behalf.

He said a federal tort claim form had been filed the previous fall and that auditors estimated the company's losses at $350 million to $600 million, according to Law&Crime.

The Anti-Weaponization Fund grew out of the settlement of Trump's lawsuit over the leak of his tax records and set aside $1.776 billion for people the administration says the Biden Justice Department targeted, National Review reported.

Todd Blanche, then the acting attorney general, rescinded the order creating the fund on Aug. 2 after Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) threatened to block his confirmation, CBS News reported.

"I think this is all for political show," Rupa Bhattacharyya, a former Justice Department attorney who is now legal director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center, told CBS News.

Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows people to seek money from the government for harm caused by its employees, nothing has ever stopped the Justice Department from paying claims brought by defendants charged over Jan. 6, 2021, she said.