DETROIT — The office of Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons has asked a federal judge to block a subpoena from MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, who's seeking "every conceivable record from the 2020 general election," according to a court filing.
The Kent County clerk filed a motion to quash the subpoena Tuesday in Michigan's Western District. Lindell, who has repeatedly made false statements about the 2020 presidential election, sought the information from Kent County in September as part of a case in which Dominion Voting Systems sued him for defamation.
Kent County uses Dominion election equipment but is not otherwise involved in the defamation suit.
"Lindell is misusing the privilege of issuing subpoenas to third parties to harass and unduly burden the clerk," lawyer Madelaine Lane wrote on Kent County's behalf.
Democrat Joe Biden won Michigan's 2020 presidential election by 154,000 votes, or 3 percentage points. But Lindell and other supporters of Republican Donald Trump have maintained false claims that the election was "stolen."
Kent County, where Lyons is the Republican clerk, is Michigan's fourth largest county. Biden won Kent County 52% to 46%.
Dominion has accused Lindell and pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani of defamation for claiming that the election was “stolen" and criticizing the company's equipment, according to The Associated Press. Dominion has sought $1.3 billion in damages.
Lindell wanted the Kent County clerk to produce "'forensic copies' of the electronic data storage drives from all the voting machines and servers in the county," according to the clerk's filing.
"A person with access to the information demanded by Lindell would have ability to tamper with Kent County’s elections," the court filing said. "It appears that Lindell wants the information necessary to hack into Kent County’s election server in the manner that he speculates — without evidence — occurred in 2020."
Lindell has not explained why the information is relevant to the defamation case, according to the clerk's office.
If the clerk has to hand the records over, the county will have to replace the countywide election system "to ensure that Lindell and his fellow purveyors of election-fraud lies cannot tamper with future election results," the filing said.
"The expense of doing so will exceed $4 million," it added.
Lindell had not responded to the Kent County filing as of Thursday afternoon in court documents. The clerk's office has asked the court to require Lindell to pay its attorney fees.
Lindell visited Michigan for a rally with Trump in Macomb County on Saturday.
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