Christopher Kachouroff of McSweeney Cynkar & Kachouroff PLLC admitted in a declaration Friday that he uses artificial intelligence to "analyze my own and my opposition's arguments" and "analyze the structure of my outline and the logic of arguments as well as those of the opposition," but he insisted he does not rely on it for legal research.
The court had found nearly 30 "defective citations" in the February response brief opposing a motion by Eric Coomer, Dominion's former director of product strategy and security, to exclude what his lawyers called a "hit piece" from the June trial.
Kachouroff said Friday that he didn't know when he was questioned last week about the error-laden brief that his co-counsel, solo practitioner Jennifer DeMaster, had mistakenly filed a draft of the "thoroughly reviewed and cite-checked" document they intended to submit while he was on a weeklong family vacation in Mexico with limited internet service.
U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang had ordered the attorneys to explain why they shouldn't be sanctioned for filing a brief filled with misquotes of cited cases and misrepresentations of legal principles and case law. She noted that Kachouroff did not admit to using AI during last week's hearing until she specifically asked him about it, and voiced doubt over his claim that he outlined and wrote a draft of a brief before using any generative AI.
"The court's order insinuates that it had to ask 'directly' whether I used AI in order for me to admit using it," Kachouroff said in his declaration Friday. "While this may be the court's perspective, it is simply not true. I never volunteered that I used any number of other AI programs (including Westlaw), because I did not believe that this was an AI issue. I was trying to search my memory to determine where [the response brief] came from."
The attorneys had asked the court for leave to file a revised version of the document. They maintained that their accidental filing of the rough draft was "under circumstances which were entirely inadvertent" in a Friday motion.
"There was no lack of diligence on the part of defense counsel and no intent to mislead this court whatsoever," they added.
The document in question voiced objections to the plaintiff's request to exclude a 118-page document titled "Eric Coomer: Pawn, Plant or Perp?" as evidence. Coomer's attorneys say the court shouldn't allow its use because it has no identified author and cites numerous blog posts as sources, but Lindell's legal team argued that the document is "not hearsay because it is not being offered for the truth of its contents."
Cooper claims in his suit against MyPillow, Lindell and his website, FrankSpeech LLC, that Lindell defamed him with accusations that he interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. A trial is scheduled for June 2.
The parties in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to Law360's request for comment.
Coomer is represented by Bradley Kloewer, Charles Cain and Ashley Morgan of Cain & Skarnulis PLLC and David Matthew Beller and Thomas M. Rogers III of Recht & Kornfeld PC.
Lindell, MyPillow and FrankSpeech are represented by Christopher Kachouroff and Robert Cynkar of McSweeney Cynkar & Kachouroff PLLC, Jennifer T. DeMaster of DeMaster Law, and Douglas G. Wardlow and Jeremiah D. Pilon of MyPillow Inc.
The case is Coomer v. Lindell et al., case number 1:22-cv-01129, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
--Additional reporting by Thy Vo and Cara Salvatore. Editing by Andrew Cohen.
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