Two attorneys representing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell have been sanctioned $3,000 each for submitting a legal brief riddled with fabricated case citations and quotes, which they admitted had been run through artificial intelligence.
U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang issued the sanctions in a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems executive Dr. Eric Coomer, who sued Lindell and his companies over false claims related to the 2020 presidential election.
The court found that attorneys Christopher I. Kachouroff and Jennifer T. DeMaster violated Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which requires attorneys to verify that all legal filings are based on sound legal arguments and accurate citations.
The court found that the attorneys’ filing included “nearly thirty defective citations”, including misquotes, incorrect attributions, and references to cases that do not exist.
Among the examples cited by the court:
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A misquote attributed to the Tenth Circuit’s World Wide Ass’n of Specialty Programs v. Pure, Inc., which the judge noted simply did not contain the quoted language.
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Citations to nonexistent cases, such as Perkins v. Fed. Fruit & Produce Co., Estate of Martinelli v. City & County of Denver, and United States v. Hoffman.
When Judge Wang questioned Kachouroff during a pretrial hearing about whether the motion had been generated using generative AI, he admitted:
“Not initially. Initially, I did an outline for myself, and I drafted a motion, and then we ran it through AI.”
Asked whether he had verified the citations afterward, Kachouroff responded:
“Your Honor, I personally did not check it. I am responsible for it not being checked.”
Judge Wang noted that the attorneys had taken a “puzzlingly defiant tone and tenor” in their response to the court’s concerns and attempted to blame the issue on filing the wrong draft by mistake. She rejected those claims, writing:
“Contrary to counsel’s contention, Rule 11 does not require the Court to provide advance notice or a safe harbor before issuing an order to show cause … Counsel has an affirmative duty—without any prompting from the Court—to comply with Rule 11 and all other Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.”
The court found the attorneys’ explanations lacked credibility, stating that the “contradictory statements and the lack of corroborating evidence” made it unpersuasive that the AI-assisted filing was simply an inadvertent error.
While acknowledging that the court “derives no joy from sanctioning attorneys,” Wang emphasized that attorneys are “essential to the primary governmental function of administering justice” and are expected to meet a “reasonable level of competence and care.”
The final order concluded:
“A sanction of $3,000 against Christopher I. Kachouroff and the law firm of McSweeney Cynkar & Kachouroff PLLC, jointly and severally, and $3,000 against Ms. DeMaster, individually, is the least severe sanction adequate to deter and punish defense counsel in this instance.”
The sanctions must be paid to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado by August 4, 2025.
Judge Wang did not extend the sanctions to Lindell or his companies, noting that Kachouroff confirmed he had not informed his clients about his use of various AI tools, including Microsoft Copilot, Westlaw AI, and ChatGPT.