{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0478","record_version":1,"title":"Federal judge proposes sanctions against Mike Lindell's lawyers over fake citations","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":42.8,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":7.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":0.0,"completeness":2.56,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: Colorado Politics · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":1,"reports_independent":1,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"1 report: Colorado Politics · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"1794808a7367eaf23651c493009c255bc839f637d482dbdc4b40adeb060b6d52"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"unknown","harness":null,"tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":null,"autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-04-01","incident_class":"hallucination","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":null,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"unknown","summary":"A federal judge in Colorado, Nina Y. Wang, handled post-trial motions in Coomer v. Lindell, a defamation case in which lawyers for Mike Lindell and his company filed briefs with citations likely produced by AI tools. The lawyers had already been sanctioned in July 2025 for earlier citation errors. In a March 25, 2026 order, the judge identified approximately 30 defective citations across filings, and a Tenth Circuit decision cited in one brief did not exist. The judge found no explanation for the attorneys' actions other than generative AI use or gross carelessness, and directed counsel to explain by April 8 why an additional penalty and disciplinary referral should not follow. The sanctions did not reach Lindell or his companies, who were unaware of the lawyers' AI use.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"Minor test: the effects are contained to one court proceeding and the stated sanctions did not reach Lindell or his companies; no third party is stated to have been touched.","harm_class":[],"affected_description":null,"protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2026/04/01/federal-judge-proposes-sanctions-against-mike-lindells-lawyers-for-continued-fake-citations/","publisher":"Colorado Politics","date":"2026-04-01","type":"press","title":"Federal judge proposes sanctions against Mike Lindell’s lawyers for continued fake citations - Colorado Politics","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report","independence":"independent"}],"per_field_confidence":{"event.incident_class":"C","context.country":"C","context.industry":"C","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","event.detection_method":"D","system.developer":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A federal judge is once again pursuing sanctions against lawyers for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for continuing to cite to court cases that do not exist, likely based on the faulty output of artificial intelligence tools."}],"context.country":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"In addressing a set of post-trial motions, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang identified a problem with the defendants’ arguments: They cited a case that did not exist."}],"context.industry":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A federal judge is once again pursuing sanctions against lawyers for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for continuing to cite to court cases that do not exist, likely based on the faulty output of artificial intelligence tools."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The sanctions did not apply to Lindell and his companies, as they were unaware of the lawyers’ use of AI in preparing their court filings."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"The sanctions did not apply to Lindell and his companies, as they were unaware of the lawyers’ use of AI in preparing their court filings."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A federal judge is once again pursuing sanctions against lawyers for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for continuing to cite to court cases that do not exist, likely based on the faulty output of artificial intelligence tools."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"In July 2025, Wang ordered attorney Christopher I. Kachouroff and his law firm to pay $3,000, and attorney Jennifer T. DeMaster to also pay $3,000."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Wang found approximately 30 “defective citations,” including misquotations, misrepresentations of law, and cases that did not exist."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Wang waved aside Kachouroff’s offense at her inquiry, and found no explanation for the attorneys’ actions other than “the use of generative artificial intelligence or gross carelessness.”"},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Wang directed Kachouroff and DeMaster to explain by April 8 why she should not impose an additional $5,000 penalty for another violation of the rules."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The sanctions did not apply to Lindell and his companies, as they were unaware of the lawyers’ use of AI in preparing their court filings."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"The sources do not name the AI tool, its developer, or model, so no system fields are given. No autonomous agent is described, so agent_involved and failure_class are left out. The date the fake citations were generated is not stated, so date_occurred is omitted. No trigger, duration, financial loss, records, or remediation is stated. Root cause 'oversight' and responsible party 'deployer' are my judgements from the judge's findings about counsel's review; the sources do not state a technical cause. Severity 'minor' is my judgement from the contained scope. The control I7 is marked missing on the judge's finding that the citation errors recurred; the sources do not describe which checks were in place. The claim the lawyers used AI rests on the press reporting 'likely' AI use and the judge's notes that counsel admitted earlier AI-produced errors. The article date 2026-04-01 is used as the disclosure date. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (1 report: Colorado Politics · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":"legal","org_size_band":null,"country":"US","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"Lawyers for Mike Lindell filed court papers that appear to have been drafted with AI tools.","quote":"A federal judge is once again pursuing sanctions against lawyers for MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for continuing to cite to court cases that do not exist, likely based on the faulty output of artificial intelligence tools.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"The judge found about 30 defective citations in the filings.","quote":"Wang found approximately 30 “defective citations,” including misquotations, misrepresentations of law, and cases that did not exist.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"A Tenth Circuit decision cited in a brief on the damages motion did not exist.","quote":"However, that case did not exist.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"caught","text":"The judge identified the problem while ruling on post-trial motions.","quote":"In addressing a set of post-trial motions, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang identified a problem with the defendants’ arguments: They cited a case that did not exist.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2026/04/01/federal-judge-proposes-sanctions-against-mike-lindells-lawyers-for-continued-fake-citations/"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"Judge's order found the fake citations recurred and rejected counsel's one-off explanation.","quote":"“At that time, defense counsel both admitted that their previous citation errors were produced by artificial intelligence but then claimed that the errors resulted from a one-off mistaken filing of the wrong draft, not a failure to properly review their citations for accuracy,” wrote Wang in a March 25 order.","source_index":0,"when":"March 25"},{"text":"Deadline set for counsel to explain why an additional penalty should not be imposed.","quote":"Wang directed Kachouroff and DeMaster to explain by April 8 why she should not impose an additional $5,000 penalty for another violation of the rules.","source_index":0,"when":"April 8"}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.coloradopolitics.com/2026/04/01/federal-judge-proposes-sanctions-against-mike-lindells-lawyers-for-continued-fake-citations/"]}}