Mike Lindell plans to pay for recount after losing Minnesota primary for governor

The MyPillow founder is prepared to pay nearly $1 million to cover the costs associated with a hand recount after he lost to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth.

Mike Lindell, a fierce Trump ally and the founder of MyPillow, says he’s willing to foot the bill for a full recount in Minnesota’s GOP primary for governor — a race he lost this month by 11 percentage points.

In a brief phone call with NBC News on Wednesday, Lindell said that he had hired his own team to begin investigating the Aug. 11 Republican primary, which NBC News projects state House Speaker Lisa Demuth won, and that he had reached out to the Minnesota secretary of state’s office to ask for a cost estimate for a recount.

The secretary of state’s general counsel, Lauren Bethke, informed Lindell in a letter Tuesday that a full hand recount and audit would cost about $825,000.

Lindell, who has repeated debunked claims that voting machines rigged the 2020 election, told NBC News that he expects the overall amount to reach “upwards of $1 million” because of additional actions, including hiring his own team to investigate the race, a cost he said he is prepared to pay.

The secretary of state’s office said Wednesday that it had not yet received an official request for a recount. Bethke’s letter said Lindell must provide a recount request alongside “a bond, cash or surety” for the estimated cost by Monday to move forward.