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| Photo Credit: AP. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell said Tuesday that federal agents seized his cellphone and questioned him about a Colorado clerk who has been charged in what prosecutors say 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, he said on his podcast, “The Lindell Report.”
The agents questioned him about Dominion Voting Systems, Mesa County Clerk Tina
Peters and his connection to Doug Frank, an Ohio educator who claims voting
machines have been manipulated, he said.
The agents
then told Lindell they had a warrant to seize his cellphone and ordered him to
turn it over, he said. On a video version of his podcast, Lindell displayed a
letter signed by an assistant U.S. attorney in Colorado that said prosecutors
were conducting an “official criminal investigation of a suspected felony” and
noted the use of a federal grand jury.
The
circumstances of the investigation were unclear. The Justice Department did not
immediately respond Tuesday night to a request for comment about the seizure or
investigation.
“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 said 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. The Republican 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.
For more
than a year, Peters has appeared onstage with supporters of former President
Donald Trump who made false claims that the 2020 presidential election was
stolen. The charges against Peters and Knisley allege the two were involved in
a “deceptive scheme which was designed to influence public servants, breach
security protocols, exceed permissible access to voting equipment, and set in
motion the eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized
people.”
State election
officials first became aware of a security breach in Mesa County in 2021 when a
photo and video of confidential voting system passwords were posted on social
media and a conservative website. Because each Colorado county has unique
passwords maintained by the state, officials identified them as belonging to
Mesa County, a largely rural area on the border with Utah.
Peters
appeared onstage in August 2021 at a “cybersymposium” hosted by Lindell, who
has sought to prove that voting machines have been manipulated and promised to
reveal proof of that during the event.
While no
evidence was provided, a copy of Mesa County’s voting system hard drive was
distributed and posted online, according to attendees and state officials.
The copy
included proprietary software developed by Dominion Voting Systems that is used
by election offices around the country. Experts have described the unauthorized
release as serious, saying it provided a potential “practice environment” that
would allow anyone to probe for vulnerabilities that could be exploited during
a future election.
Nearly two
years after the 2020 election, no evidence has emerged to suggest widespread
fraud or manipulation, while reviews in state after state have upheld the
results showing President Joe Biden won.
The Mesa
County breach is just one of several around the country that have concerned
election security experts. Authorities are investigating whether unauthorized
people were allowed to access voting systems in Georgia and Michigan.
Lindell said
the federal agents had also questioned him about when he first met Frank, an
Ohio math and science educator, who is among a group of people who have been
traveling across the U.S. meeting with community groups claiming to have
evidence that voting machines were rigged in the 2020 election.
In court
records, prosecutors say Frank met with Peters and members of her staff in
April 2021 in her office. During the meeting, Frank told Peters that the
county’s election management system was vulnerable to outside interference and
the group discussed concerns the state was going to “wipe” the machines, according
to the court records.
Associated
Press writers Jill Colvin, Eric Tucker and Michelle R. Smith contributed to
this report.