MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell (left) waits outside the West Wing of the White House before entering on January 15, 2021 (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images), Rudy Giuliani sales pitch for Rudy Coffee, as posted on his X account on May 21, 2024 (@RudyGiuliani/X screengrab)
Another batch of subpoenas has gone out in Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, this time targeting MyPillow, its CEO Mike Lindell, and FrankSpeech, Lindell’s streaming app and website.
The former mayor’s creditors are looking to learn more about a contract — “Talent Services Agreement” — between Giuliani and FrankSpeech, seemingly the agreement Giuliani’s attorney Gary Fischoff referenced during a wide-ranging June 17 hearing, revealing a new five-day-a-week internet or radio show that would create $180,000 in additional income.
Beyond that, lawyers with the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, representing defamed Georgia election worker Shaye Moss, Dominion Voting Systems, and Giuliani sexual harassment and wage theft accuser Noelle Dunphy, are subpoenaing Lindell and his company with the apparent goal of linking the MyPillow CEO’s MyCoffee venture to the debtor’s recently launched Rudy Coffee business.
The Friday subpoenas are largely identical to other document production demands that have issued in the bankruptcy case thus far, so for that reason the differences in the Lindell and FrankSpeech filings stand out.
More Law&Crime coverage: Creditors accuse Giuliani of ‘flouting court orders,’ ask bankruptcy judge to hold him in contempt, issue sanctions
The Lindell subpoena focuses on documents and communications “sufficient to show the nature of any relationship” between the MyPillow CEO, MyCoffee and Rudy Coffee.
As Law&Crime reported in May, Miami-area coffee roaster Darron “Don Pablo” Burke, the president and CEO of Burke Brands, was subpoenaed for documents to probe his involvement with Rudy Coffee.
But Burke is on record as early as Jan. 2021 saying he had been “trying to get the attention of Mike Lindell, the My Pillow guy.”
“I’m a big fan and have what I think is a very good idea for him,” Burke said, according to an interview posted on Medium.
MyCoffee, for instance, features footage with identical images from a Don Pablo Coffee video on YouTube.
A still of a Don Pablo ad:
A still of a MyCoffee ad:
Giuliani’s live-streaming has in recent days also featured Lindell ads:
Creditors seek “All Documents and Communications regarding and relationship between [Lindell] or My Coffee, on one hand, and Rudy Coffee, on the other hand.”
On top of that, the bankruptcy lawyers and their clients want to know more about the Lindell outlet FrankSpeech’s financial connection to Giuliani and the “alter ego LLC” Giuliani Communications.
“The term ‘Talent Services Agreement’ shall refer to the contract entered into between Frankspeech, on one hand, and the Debtor and Giuliani Communications, LLC, on the other hand, and listing Maria Ryan as a contractor and signatory,” documents said.
While creditors have claimed that Giuliani might be “funneling funds that belong to his creditors to his business,” Giuliani Communications, “and using his business as a personal piggy bank, which is fraudulent,” Giuliani and his attorneys have responded that there is no impropriety whatsoever.
At the June 17 hearing, Fischoff said there was “nothing unusual” about the LLC, leading to an awkward exchange with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane.
Lane said that if you operate through an LLC like this, “then you have to provide information” in detail.
“It can’t be on a trust me basis,” the judge emphasized, while asking Fischoff if he himself had details on the financials.
“No, not yet,” Fischoff answered.
“That’s an unfortunate statement for you to have to make,” Lane remarked.
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