My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of the fiercest defenders of former President Donald Trump, claimed during a livestream that the FBI surrounded his vehicle while he was on a hunting trip and seized his cell phone.
The New York Times reported that the search warrant that Lindell was served appeared to be in connection to Colorado county clerk Tina Peters who is under indictment on state charges related to allegations about a scheme to download data from election equipment after the 2020 presidential election.
“I have my own breaking news tonight,” Lindell said on his show. “This afternoon I was, I went down hunting in Iowa for the early teal season with my friend this morning at 4 a.m. We got up headed down to Iowa. We were coming back and we stopped to get — go through a Hardee’s in Mankato, where I was born, in Mankato, Minnesota. And cars pulled up in front of us, to the side of us, and behind us, and I said, ‘Those are either bad guys or the FBI.’ It turns out they were the FBI.”
Lindell claimed that one of the FBI agents told him, “Well, I got some bad news. … we’re taking your cell phone, we have a warrant for your cell phone.”
Lindell says that he resisted giving his cell phone to the agents. “I run five companies off that, I don’t have a computer, my hearing aids run off this,” Lindell said. “Everything runs off my phone.”
Lindell said that he called a lawyer and that the lawyer told him to turn over the phone to the FBI.
The New York Times reported that the FBI asked him about an image that was copied from a voting machine in Colorado and appeared on a website that Lindell operates.
A letter that agents gave Lindell asked him not to disclose the existence of the investigation but he decided to reveal it during his show’s livestream.
“Although the law does not require nondisclosure unless a court order is issued, we believe that the impact of any disclosure could be detrimental to the investigation,” the letter, signed by Aaron Teitelbaum, an assistant U.S. attorney, stated.
This report has been updated to include additional information.