Last Updated on September 14, 2022
MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a staunch Trump supporter and election integrity activist, announced that federal agents had seized his cellphone on Tuesday evening. FBI agents reportedly questioned him about a Colorado clerk who has been charged in what prosecutors allege was a “deceptive scheme” to breach voting system technology used across the country.
Lindell was approached in the drive-thru of a Hardee’s fast-food restaurant in Mankato, Minnesota, by several FBI agents, the MyPillow boss announced on his podcast. The agents questioned him about Dominion Voting Systems, Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters and his connection to Doug Frank, an Ohio educator who believes voting machines have been manipulated.
Agents then presented Lindell with a warrant to seize his cellphone and ordered him to hand it over. Lindell later presented a letter explaining warrant during a video segment of his podcast, The Lindell Report. It was signed by an assistant U.S. attorney in Colorado and informed Lindell that prosecutors were conducting an “official criminal investigation of a suspected felony” and noted the use of a federal grand jury.
Circumstances surrounding the investigation remain unclear as of this time. In a statement to the Associated Press, the Justice Department declined to provide additional details.
“Without commenting on this specific matter, I can confirm that the FBI was at that location executing a search warrant authorized by a federal judge,” FBI spokeswoman Vikki Migoya told the AP in an email.
Federal prosecutors have been conducting a parallel investigation alongside local prosecutors in Colorado who have charged Peters with several offenses, including attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation and official misconduct. She was elected in 2018 to oversee elections in Colorado’s Mesa County. A deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, was also charged in the case, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years of probation, the AP reported.
Peters appeared onstage at Lindell’s August 2021 “Cybersymposium” event, who believes voting machines were altered in the 2020 election. A copy of Mesa County’s voting system hard drive was distributed and posted online, according to attendees and state officials.
