On Tuesday night, MyPillow CEO and prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump Mike Lindell revealed that he was the victim of a surprise subpoena served by the FBI while he was at a Hardee’s restaurant in Mankato, Minnesota. Lindell says he was “cornered” by FBI agents who demanded his phone.
According to Lindell, the FBI was specifically concerned with any contact he has had with county clerk Tina Peters from Mesa County, Colorado.
“They want to know about Dominion and Mesa County in Colorado,” said Lindell, who described the event on his Frank Speech channel.
On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump, whose own home was the subject of an unprecedented FBI search in August, came out strongly in support of Lindell and against what he referred to as the “weaponized police state.”
“Breaking News: Mike Lindell, ‘THE Pillow Guy,’ was just raided by the FBI. We are now officially living in a Weaponized Police State, Rigged Elections, and all. Our Country is a laughing stock all over the World. The majesty of the United States is gone. Can’t let this happen. TAKE BACK AMERICA!” Trump wrote.
The FBI has not commented specifically on the seizure of Lindell’s phone. The Denver FBI field office spokesman could only say, “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.”
According to Lindell, the agents who seized his phone were courteous.
Lindell strenuously objected to the seizure of his phone, since he conducts the vast majority of his business with the device.
“I go: ‘No. My whole company — I run five companies off that. I don’t have a computer,'” Lindell said. “My hearing aids run off this! Everything runs off my phone!”
Nevertheless, the FBI took the phone, citing a search warrant seeking records pertaining to any “authorization or lack of authorization to damage or modify any Dominion computerized voting system.”
Apparently, the FBI is investigating “any attempted misappropriation, theft, conversion, transfer, or exfiltration of any proprietary hardware, software or other data” that may be related to Dominion voting machines.
Lindell has been a leader in calling out possibly fraudulent practices surrounding the 2020 general election in which Joe Biden allegedly received more than 81 million votes. At his recent Moment of Truth Summit, Lindell claimed that he had key whistleblower information showing that the federal government was actively surveilling up to 20 million Americans. Lindell apparently now owns a large piece of the software used in that surveillance.
And suddenly the FBI shows up.
But Lindell wasn’t intimidated. He thought that, possibly, he was about to be served with a subpoena to appear before the circus known as the January 6th Committee.
“I said, ‘Come on, bring me to January 6. I want to be part of that show,'” Lindell told CNN. “They thought they were there to intimidate me. They won’t intimidate me.”
It is not known if the FBI harassment of Lindell is connected to the approximately 40 subpoenas related to former president Trump in the last ten days.
Among those subpoenaed was former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, whose phone was seized.
Kerik’s attorney, Timothy Parlatore, called it “the widest and most obtuse subpoena I have seen in my years practicing criminal law.”
The FBI documentation asked Lindell to remain quiet about receiving the subpoena — a request the MyPillow CEO obviously didn’t comply with.
“An official criminal investigation of a suspected felony is being conducted by an agency of the United States and a federal grand jury in the District of Colorado. As a subpoena recipient, you are not under obligation of secrecy,” the document stated. “However, we request that you do not disclose the existence of this subpoena for an indefinite period of time.”
“In other words,” Lindell pointed out, “they don’t want me to tell anybody about the subpoena or what just happened today.”
One has to wonder at the endgame here. Much like the raid at Mar-a-Lago, the seizure of Lindell’s phone and the dozens of subpoenas handed out in the past ten days scream “fishing expedition” by a Justice Department apparently desperate to gain criminal information against Trump. It seems as if the department (acting on whose authority no one knows or will admit) is looking for something — anything — that can possibly be construed as a crime against Trump, whether it’s true or not.
And perhaps that is exactly what they’re doing — searching for some evidence of a crime that they believe will disqualify Trump from a run for president in the future. The image of Trump being perp-walked (whether he’s guilty of anything or not) would be a powerful Democratic campaign commercial going forward.