DENVER (KDVR) – Two lawyers representing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in a Denver defamation lawsuit are being fined thousands of dollars for submitting an incorrect, AI-generated document to the court earlier this year.
The law firm McSweeny Synkar and Kachouroff PLLC, along with attorney Christopher Kachouroff, are jointly responsible for a $3,000 penalty. Additionally, attorney Jennifer DeMaster is also fined $3,000 for her involvement.
Judge Nina Wang identified approximately 30 flawed references in a brief submitted by the attorneys in February, including missing essential court information and citing non-existent cases.
Wang, in her ruling, included an exchange in court wherein Kachouroff said he and DeMaster had signed and certified the brief. The court began by asking Kachouroff if the motion was generated by generative artificial intelligence.
“Not initially. Initially, I did an outline for myself, and I drafted a motion, and then we ran it through AI,” Kachouroff reportedly told the court.
He was also asked if he had double-checked citations from the brief.
“Your Honor, I personally did not check it. I am responsible for it not being checked,” Kachouroff told the court, according to the ruling.
Wang said she did not extend the sanctions to the defendants in the case — which would include Mike Lindell — because Kachouroff said he did not tell his clients he was using AI tools in his work.
The defamation case against Lindell concluded last month, after a jury found that Lindell made multiple defamatory statements against Eric Coomer, a former employee of Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, in regards to the results of the 2020 presidential election.
On May 9, 2021, Lindell attacked voting machine companies and then said Coomer was a traitor. In another statement, on April 6, 2022, Lindell accused Coomer of being “part of the biggest crime this world has ever seen.”
The jury cleared Lindell of defaming Coomer eight other times for statements made by both himself and others who appeared on his online media platform.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
