topline
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, has sued the FBI over Hardee’s drive-through last week His mobile phone was confiscated and he was accused of violating his rights by the agency as he continued to peddled a baseless conspiracy about the 2020 election.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is suing the FBI for allegedly violating his rights.
key facts
Lindell claims the FBI and the Justice Department violated his constitutional rights after FBI agents confiscated his phone in Hardy’s driveway when he returned from a hunting trip last week.
Lindell feared for “the lives of him and his friends,” and was “prepared to run into one of the cars and run away” after federal agents surrounded his truck and executed a search warrant to seize his phone, court documents said, authorized by a federal judge. of. .
Lindell said he couldn’t leave until he surrendered his phone, which he said amounted to “unlawful detention.”
Agents also failed to explain Lindell’s rights to him and denied him a request to call his attorney while they asked him questions including Dominion Voting Systems, his air travel and Mesa County, Colorado election official Tina. Peters, who allegedly tampered with voting machines earlier this year because of the document.
Lindell, who has not been charged with a crime or arrested, also said the government must have been following him so the FBI could execute a search warrant on Hardy because he did not disclose his plans for the visit.
The lawsuit seeks the return of Lindell’s phone and any data obtained from it, which should be prevented from being released or used by the government in any investigation.
key background
Like many of Trump’s closest allies, Lindell often finds himself in trouble over persistent claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He was indicted on multiple and unproven accusations of voter fraud, notably Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic defamation, and said he had been dropped by major retailers in retaliation for his allegations. He is an outspoken opponent of computerized voting systems — which he reiterates and insists on First Amendment protections in this lawsuit — which he believes has contributed to massive fraud in the 2020 election. While he claimed solid evidence that the election was stolen from Trump, widespread voter fraud and malfunctioning voting machines, Lindell’s evidence did not stand up to even basic scrutiny.
Tangent
It was unclear whether Lindell himself was under investigation, after he previously claimed that agents were questioning him about his relationship with Peters. An image allegedly copied from a voting machine by Peters was uploaded to Frank Speech, a website he runs, and Lindell had previously said he directly funded her legal defense, but later retracted the statement and said he was mistaken. New York TimesThe case against Peters, who pleaded not guilty to charges of downloading data from voting machines, is one of several in which he allegedly accessed voting machines to retrieve data that would apparently support a conspiracy theory of election theft.
Further reading
Trump claims MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was ‘raided’ by FBI after his phone was confiscated in Hardee’s driveway (Forbes)
Voter Fraud Believer – Indicted for Election Tampering – Loses Colorado’s GOP Nomination for Secretary of State (Forbes)
‘They’re trying to take me down’: MyPillow CEO says retailer dropped the brand amid his baseless voter fraud allegations (Forbes)
