Mike Lindell tried to get into a Republican governors meeting. He was told to leave

MyPillow CEO sought to challenge GOP officials over his debunked election fraud conspiracies

Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow who is facing a defamation lawsuit for amplifying debunked election conspiracy theories, is not a Republican governor.

Nevertheless, he travelled to Nashville, Tennessee on Monday to attend a three-day Republican Governors Association conference, where he was promptly removed and blocked from attending this week’s events, according to Politico.

Mr Lindell, who emerged as a key ally to Donald Trump as the former president pursued a spurious legal bid to toss out millions of votes in the 2020 presidential election, reportedly attempted to join a members-only dinner at the Tennessee Governor’s Mansion on Tuesday and was denied, Politico reported.

During an appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, Mr Lindell promised to confront Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, the chair of the Republican Governors Association, to accuse them of blocking his attempts to audit election results and to pressure them to investigate voting machines.

“Why don’t you talk about the machines?” Mr Lindell said. “He’s hiding something. … Why would you do this to America?”

On Wednesday, in another interview on Mr Bannon’s podcast, Mr Lindell raged at Republicans and accused the governors of orchestrating a “cover up”.

“I will never give up and I will never back down,” he said. “These guys, they never give up on their cover up, whatever they’re covering up. You’ve got to give them credit. They keep to their guns and they keep trying to be obstructionists for the American people.”

Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr Lindell and his business for $1.3bn over the “viral disinformation campaign” from Mr Lindell that has “irreparably damaged” the company’s reputation, accusing Mr Lindell and others of falsely claiming that Dominion manipulated the results of the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

Mr Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Fox News have faced similar lawsuits.

Right-wing cable network Newsmax, facing similar pressure, issued a formal apology on its website for amplifying allegations against Dominion.

Mr Lindell announced a countersuit during a live-streamed launch for his website Frank Speech, which Mr Lindell promised to be a social media platform that combined Twitter and YouTube but has served as a clearinghouse for his video appearances and conspiracy theories.

Mr Lindell claimed his move is not a countermeasure against Dominion’s suit but about “First Amendment rights and free speech”.

The lawsuit claims: “MyPillow has not engaged in discussion about the 2020 election. However, as an American company supporting American constitutional values, MyPillow unreservedly supports Lindell’s right to exercise his First Amendment freedoms concerning the matters of critical public concern, like election matters.”

But his lawsuit claims that Dominion caused “grave harm” to MyPillow “as a result of Dominion’s suppression of speech and attacks” on the company.

In a statement to The Independent, Dominion legal counsel Stephen Shackelford of Susman Godfrey LLP said: “This is a meritless retaliatory lawsuit filed by MyPillow to try to distract from the harm it caused to Dominion.”