U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang sanctioned Christopher Kachouroff and his firm McSweeney Cynkar & Kachouroff PLLC, jointly and severally, and Jennifer DeMaster of DeMaster Law, ordering them to pay $3,000 each over a response brief in former Dominion Voting Systems executive Eric Coomer's defamation lawsuit against Lindell, MyPillow Inc. and Lindell's website FrankSpeech LLC.

A Colorado federal jury in June found Lindell and FrankSpeech LLC liable for more than $2 million in damages in the case accusing him of amplifying false claims that Coomer rigged the 2020 election against Donald Trump.

The response brief filed by the attorneys contained misquotes of cited cases, misrepresentations of legal principles and case law, and citations of cases that don't exist. In April, Judge Wang ordered the attorneys to explain why they shouldn't be sanctioned.

Judge Wang said previously that Kachouroff did not admit to using AI during a pretrial conference until she specifically asked him about it and voiced doubt over his claim that he outlined and wrote a draft of a brief before using any generative AI.

In response to Judge Wang's April order, Kachouroff said that DeMaster had mistakenly filed a draft of the "thoroughly reviewed and cite-checked" document they intended to submit while he was on a weeklong family vacation in Mexico with limited internet service.

Judge Wang said Monday that the "final" version of the document doesn't reflect any edits that appear in the "correct" version and has the same errors as the filed version.

Judge Wang also addressed the attorneys' claims that they had developed the "correct" version of their response by Feb. 25 and planned to file it that day.

"Curiously, the appendix included with the blackline draft of the 'correct' brief refers to 'Notes of changes from final rough draft to final version that was worked on April 24 and completed on April 25 and finalized at approximately 4:10 PM CST,'" Judge Wang wrote. "April 24–25, 2025 refers to the time period between the court's issuance of the order to show cause on April 23, 2025 and the filing of defendants' response — not the time period during editing and before filing defendants' opposition."

Kachouroff also argued that the brief was a "clear deviation" from his practice, and given the number of errors, it was reasonable to presume that the brief may have been a mistake. Judge Wang countered this argument by highlighting similar conduct in another federal court.

Just a week after Judge Wang issued the order to show cause, the same defense counsel team filed two notices of errata in Wisconsin federal court regarding their briefing, the order stated. The errata demonstrate the same type of errors in the opposition filed in Colorado, including citations to cases that do not exist, Judge Wang wrote.

The court opted not to extend the sanctions to MyPillow, Lindell and FrankSpeech because Kachouroff confirmed he didn't advise the defendants he uses AI tools in his practice.

Kachouroff and DeMaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, nor did counsel for Coomer.

Coomer is represented by Bradley Kloewer, Charles Cain and Ashley Morgan of Cain & Skarnulis PLLC and David Matthew Beller of Recht Kornfeld PC.

Lindell, MyPillow and FrankSpeech are represented by Christopher Kachouroff and Robert J. Cynkar of McSweeney Cynkar & Kachouroff PLLC, Jennifer T. DeMaster of DeMaster Law and James Joseph Duane of the Regent University School of Law.

The case is Eric Coomer v. Michael Lindell et al., case number 1:22-cv-01129, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

--Additional reporting by Zach Dupont and Andrea Keckley. Editing by Dave Trumbore.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/media/articles/2361639?nl_pk=642f4139-042b-4e63-9cf8-a27f83503ce2&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=media&utm_content=2025-07-08&read_more=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

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