MyPillow founder and 2020 presidential election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell said Tuesday night that FBI agents seized his cellphone in southern Minnesota — an action at least partly corroborated by the agency.
The exact legal context of Tuesday evening’s events in Mankato weren’t entirely clear, but the FBI confirmed it executed a “search warrant authorized by a federal judge” in an action that involved both Minnesota and Colorado agents.
According to Lindell, FBI agents took his cellphone in his hometown of Mankato with a federal warrant related to Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems material he might be in possession of. Dominion is suing Lindell for defamation, one of several lawsuits Lindell is embroiled in over his baseless claims of election fraud that, in his words, “stole” the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump, whom Lindell advised at various times.
“They said, ‘It’s not about January 6,’ ” Lindell said in an interview with the Pioneer Press. “I asked them that.”
Lindell referred several times to Dominion machines in Mesa County, Colorado, which is also the scene of a criminal investigation over alleged breaches into election systems.
According to Lindell’s account, he was returning from duck hunting in Iowa and stopped at a Mankato Hardee’s restaurant when vehicles corralled his car and four agents piled out.
“Three guys and a lady,” Lindell said of the agents. “They were pretty nice.”
One of the agents questioned Lindell about an image of a Dominion voting machine that Lindell said he got “off the internet.” They took his cellphone, which Lindell lamented as the only computing device he uses to conduct business at his Chaska pillow company. “Everything is on my phone.”
Lindell said the paperwork, which referenced “an official criminal investigation of a suspected felony,” was signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony N. Leong of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota.
Minneapolis FBI spokeswoman Cyndi Barrington said, “FBI Minneapolis assisted FBI Denver today with court authorized law enforcement activity.”
Denver FBI spokeswoman Vikki Migoya said in a statement, in part, “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.”
Lindell said he had been hunting teal in an early duck hunting season in Iowa that ends on Sept. 16.
———
