DENVER (KDVR) – Two attorneys who were representing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell in a defamation case in Denver are facing thousands of dollars in fines for submitting an inaccurate, AI-generated brief to the court in April.
The McSweeny Synkar and Kachouroff PLLC law firm and attorney Christopher Kachouroff are facing “jointly and severally” a sanction of $3,000. Attorney Jennifer DeMaster is also facing a $3,000 fine for the matter.
Judge Nina Wang pointed out about 30 defective citations in a brief filed by the attorneys in February. The defects ranged from failing to include basic court information to citations of cases that do not exist.
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.
