A Minnesota court ordered MyPillow to be vacated from the warehouse it previously used.
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, a prominent election denier, He told the Associated Press The eviction is a formality because the landlord wants the property back.
The Minneapolis warehouse is approximately 125,000 square feet and has been leased to Lindell since December 2015. The lease between Lindell and the landlord, First Industrial LP, has been amended twice. It lasts 10 years, seven months and 20 days, and the monthly rent is $57,794.12, according to the eviction complaint.
According to the complaint, dated March 7, Lindell has not made rent payments for February and March 2024. Since this is not the first time MyPillow has failed to pay its rent on more than two occasions during the previous 12-month period, according to the lease under the agreement, The owner may regain ownership of the building.
As of Wednesday, Lindell had not responded to the eviction complaint and did not attend the scheduled hearing, forcing the judge to issue an eviction order. He confirmed to the AP that MyPillow owes about $217,000 to the Delaware-based company for rent.
The company no longer needed the space and removed its belongings from the warehouse last June before subleasing it to another company during December, Lindell said. The company folded in January and “left us all stranded.” MyPillow offered to look for another tenant, but the owner wanted the warehouse back, he told the news agency.
MyPillow “is more or less vacated but we want to do it by the book,” said Sarah Filo, an attorney representing First Industrial LP. The Star Tribune reported.
Lindell faces multiple defamation lawsuits from two voting machine companies, after he spread lies that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and stolen from former President Trump. In February, a federal judge ruled that he must pay $5 million in an election data dispute.
Several major retailers pulled MyPillow products from their shelves in July 2023, prompting the company to begin auctioning off its equipment, such as forklifts and conveyor belts.
Lindell was also involved in a dispute in January with Fox News, which stopped airing MyPillow ads. He admitted that he owed Fox about $7.8 million, but said the network canceled the ads because the company wanted to silence him over his election claims.
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