Mike Lindell’s lawyers fined after using AI in brief riddled with mistakes

In a recent ruling, the legal team representing MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell faced a hefty fine of $6,000 due to their reliance on artificial intelligence in crafting a brief that was filled with inaccuracies, including misquotes and references to non-existent legal cases. The penalties were divided between attorney Christopher Kachouroff and his firm, McSweeney Cynkar & Kachouroff, who were jointly fined $3,000, and attorney Jennifer DeMaster, who received a separate $3,000 penalty. US District Judge Nina Wang noted that this was the minimum sanction necessary to both deter and penalize the defense counsel in this case, as stated in her order issued in Colorado. This sanction follows a previous jury trial where Eric Coomer, a former executive at Dominion Voting Systems, was awarded over $2.3 million in damages after it was determined that Lindell had defamed him. The jury concluded that Lindell owed Coomer $440,500, while Lindell's media outlet, Frankspeech, was found liable for $1,865,500 in damages. However, the jury did not find MyPillow liable for defamation. The problematic brief in question, filed on February 25, was meant to oppose Coomer's motion to exclude certain evidence and contained numerous errors, including nearly 30 faulty citations. Kachouroff and DeMaster later claimed that they mistakenly submitted an earlier draft instead of the finalized document. Nonetheless, Judge Wang asserted that even the revised version still contained significant inaccuracies regarding previous legal cases.