Attorneys for a former Dominion Voting Systems official said in court Tuesday that MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s false claims about him were fueled in part by Lindell blaming the official for his banishment from conservative television.

Opening statements kicked off a trial in federal court in Denver that will decide whether Lindell defamed Eric Coomer, a former director at Dominion, when he accused Coomer of treason during Lindell’s discredited effort to undermine the results of 2020 presidential election. Coomer, who filed the suit in April 2022, is seeking damages from Lindell for the physical and emotional distress that attorneys say resulted from Lindell’s false claims.

Dominion has filed its own string of lawsuits to combat unproven allegations that it was involved in rigging the 2020 election against President Donald Trump. The company settled one lawsuit with Fox News for nearly $800 million.

In addition to Dominion, election deniers targeted Coomer after Colorado-based podcaster Joe Oltmann publicly identified “Eric, the Dominion guy.” Lindell, Coomer contends, regurgitated and elevated Oltmann’s claims to a wider audience.

“This is more than a mere insult to (Coomer),” Charlie Cain, one of Coomer’s attorneys, said in court Tuesday. “This was about severe distress and fearing for his life for the last four years.”

Cain said Lindell’s claims were “extreme and outrageous.” He displayed a threatening text message Coomer received, and he said Coomer needed therapy and medication to deal with the stress.

Cain argued that Lindell was upset at Coomer in part because Newsmax, a conservative TV channel, had stopped allowing Lindell on air after the channel settled a separate lawsuit with Coomer in April 2021.

Shortly after, Lindell accused Coomer of treason and said he should turn himself in to authorities.

Lindell’s attorneys, meanwhile, argued to the jury Tuesday that Lindell made the claims against Coomer because he believed them — and because Lindell had been intentionally baited by Coomer.

Attorney Chris Kachouroff said Lindell, “rightly or wrongly,” was upset about not being allowed on Newsmax anymore. After Lindell publicly attacked Coomer in the wake of the Newsmax settlement, Kachouroff said, Coomer attempted to “bait” Lindell into defaming him by serving him with a lawsuit shortly before Lindell spoke at a rally at the Colorado state Capitol. That prompted Lindell to take the mic and say that Coomer would soon be behind bars.

Lindell made several other comments about Coomer in the subsequent days, Kachouroff acknowledged, but only because Coomer “triggered” Lindell by having him served with a lawsuit so publicly. He said that was Coomer’s goal, and Kachouroff quoted an email and text from Coomer about wanting to sue Lindell.

More fundamentally, Kachouroff said, Lindell believed the debunked claims he made about the 2020 election.

“Evidence will show that Mike believed he was telling the truth, that he believed they were truthful at the time he made them, and the First Amendment protects him,” Kachouroff said.

He argued that Coomer’s professional reputation had suffered because Coomer’s own anti-Trump Facebook posts came to light, not because of claims made by Lindell.

The trial is set to last through the end of next week. Coomer began testifying Tuesday morning, and he denied that his lawsuit was a “shakedown of Mike Lindell.”

Lindell, who sat with his team of attorneys a few feet from Coomer, is expected to testify in his own defense. MyPillow, the company he founded in 2009, is also a defendant, as is FrankSpeech, Lindell’s media company.

Oltmann, whom Cain accused of fabricating his own research on Coomer, is not a defendant. He was subpoenaed by Coomer’s attorneys and is expected to testify Wednesday.