Mike Lindell

Michael James "MyPillow Guy" "MyPillow Mike" Lindell is an American businessman, pseudoscience-pusher, conspiracy theorist, wannabe right wing politician,Steve Karnowski, MyPillow Guy among the Trump acolytes picking up the torch. Associated Press, 23 January 2021. Razzie winning schlockumentarist, and rabid Republican supporter of Donald Trump. Lindell claims that he was previously a cocaine addict and alcoholic before finding sobriety through Christianity,Kyle Swenson, From crack cocaine to Mar-a-Lago: The unusual journey of the MyPillow man. Seattle Times, 8 April 2018. though as far as is known the only evidence of the cocaine addiction is Lindell himself.
His day job is owner of MyPillow, a cushion manufacturer and airwave polluter that has had a longstanding pattern of complaints based on a never-ending 'Buy-One-Get-One' scheme.Business Profile: My Pillow, Inc. Better Business Bureau. MyPillow has lost two separate false advertising lawsuits after claiming his pillows could cure insomnia, sleep apnea, fibromyalgia, and multiple sclerosis, and was ordered to pay $1 million in each case.My Pillow Settles Consumer Lawsuit Over Health Claims for $1 Million: Company was accused by California consumer groups of misleading advertising by Mary H.J. Farrell (November 03, 2016) Consumer Reports.
Lindell made some dumb business decisions. At Trump's urging during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lindell directed his company to make cloth masks instead of pillows, intending to give them away to first responders. Unfortunately he failed to do basic research, and found that his masks weren't approved for use in hospitals and nursing homes. He then decided to sell the masks through his company website at the same time the market became saturated with masks. He ended up with two million cloth masks that he can't even give away, and a $US7 million loss.Christina Zhao, Mike Lindell Says He Lost $7M in Failed Mask Venture Touted by Trump: 'Can't Give Them Away'. Newsweek, 19 June 2021.
==I support Trump, so buy my pillows==
Lindell enjoys a symbiotic relationship with right wing conservative media. He attained a kind of cult status for standing by personalities such as Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham after they were harshly criticized for hate speech and lost many advertisers. Lindell reiterated his support for these people, and in some cases increased advertising on their shows to lengthy infomercial segments.Jeremy Barr, Tucker Carlson’s biggest advertiser, the MyPillow guy, doesn’t think Carlson needed to apologize for writer's hate speech. Archived from the original at The Washington Post, 14 July 2020.Jon Levine, My Pillow Chief Stands Behind Laura Ingraham and Other Fox News Ads: ‘I Don’t Boycott Any Station’. thewrap.com, 28 February 2019. Lindell also heavily advertises on conservative talk radio stations in the Salem Radio Network, and appears on the talk shows hosted by many Salem personalities. Lindell was the largest advertiser on Fox News in 2020, but following Trump's election defeat, has harshly criticized the network's news coverage despite maintaining his commercial relationship with them.Jeremy Barr, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell is now one of Fox’s loudest right-wing critics. He’s still one of its biggest advertisers. Archived from the original at The Washington Post, 10 January 2021.Annie Karni, Who is Mike Lindell, one of Trump’s last remaining supporters from corporate America? The New York Times, 16 January 2021.
And, if you're a QAnon nutjob and you buy his pillows, you can even get a discount!Did MyPillow Offer Discounts With Codes Like 'QAnon' and More? CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump supporter, has long promoted false claims and conspiracy theories. by Nur Ibrahim (20 January 2021) Snopes.MyPillow CEO says Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl's, Wayfair are dropping his products: Mike Lindell, a major Republican donor, has repeatedly pushed false claims that widespread voter fraud cost President Trump the 2020 election. by Taylor Telford (Jan. 19, 2021 at 10:36 a.m. PST) The Washington Post.
==COVID woo==
In August 2020, Lindell and Ben Carson began pitching oleandrin, a toxic chemical found in the oleander plant, to Trump as a cure for COVID-19. Lindell has a financial stake in Phoenix Biotechnology, the company developing the experimental oleandrin product.Nicole Lyn Pesce, 4 facts about oleandrin, an unproven coronavirus treatment reportedly pitched to Trump. marketwatch.com, 18 August 2020.Ross Pomeroy, The worst junk science of 2020 tied to the coronavirus pandemic. masslive.com, 19 December 2020.Junk Science in 2020. schachtmanlaw.com, 17 December 2020. There is no evidence that oleandrin works to treat COVID-19 in humans.Megan Brooks, Experts Reject Oleander Extract as COVID Treatment. WebMD, 19 August 2020.Joe Schwarcz, Planting a Toxic Oleander Seed. McGill University Office for Science and Society, 19 August 2020. When Lindell went on CNN to promote this unproven cure, calling it "the miracle of all time", host Anderson Cooper asked him, "How are you different than a snake oil salesman?"Nicole Lyn Pesce, MyPillow fight: CNN’s Anderson Cooper tears into Mike Lindell over claim that oleandrin is a coronavirus cure. marketwatch.com, 18 August 2020.Steven Novella, Oleandra – The New COVID Snake Oil. Science-Based Medicine, 19 August 2020.
On February 6th 2021, Lindell went on a rant about COVID-19 on a Steve Bannon podcast, describing COVID's supposed connections to the "One World Order", asserting that the COVID-19 vaccine is "mark of the beast stuff", and then going off on a whacknoodle tangent about assorted non-sequiturs (666, Nazi analogies, communism, socialism, etc.)."Horrible My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell calls COVID-19 Vaccine Mark of the Beast Stuff by Christina Zhao, Newsweek, 2021 February 7"MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Goes on Steve Bannon’s Podcast, Calls Covid-19 Vaccine ‘The Mark of the Beast’" by Zachary Petrizzo, Mediate.com, 2021 Februrary 6
==2020 election conspiracy theories==
After Trump lost the 2020 U.S. presidential election in November 2020, Lindell jumped on the crazy train and began spewing election conspiracy theories and making absurd, incendiary statements. He parroted Trump's false claims that Arizona Governor Doug Ducey and Georgia governor Brian Kemp sold out Trump by refusing to overturn their state election results. Taking the lead from unhinged Trump lawyer Lin Wood, Lindell said that people who voted against Trump in the state of Georgia should be imprisoned and that Trump should declare martial law.Benjamin Fearnow, Mike Lindell, MyPillow CEO, Tweets, Then Deletes Call for Trump to 'Impose Martial Law'. Newsweek, 20 December 2020. In December 2020, Lindell appeared on the conservative cable network Newsmax and claimed that the voting machines were rigged to give Joe Biden the victory.Lindsey Ellefson, Newsmax Host Sebastian Gorka Cuts Off MyPillow CEO’s Debunked Voting Machine Claims Amid Legal Threat (Video). thewrap.com, 22 December 2020. Lindell has financially backed the post-election efforts of Trumpist lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood.Asawin Suebsaeng, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Is Throwing Down Big Money to Fuel Pro-Trump Election Challenges. The Daily Beast, 19 December 2020.
In January 2021, Dominion Voting Systems warned Lindell of imminent litigation regarding his "false and conspiratorial" claims that Dominion had somehow rigged the 2020 election against Trump.Dominion threatens MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell with lawsuit over ‘false and conspiratorial' claims by Hannah Knowles & Emma Brown (Jan. 18, 2021 at 3:49 p.m. PST) The Washington Post. On February 22, 2021, Dominion initiated a US$1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Lindell and MyPillow.Alexa Corse, Dominion Sues MyPillow, CEO Mike Lindell Over Election Claims; The voting-machine maker’s lawsuit alleges defamation, seeks more than $1.3 billion in damages. Archived from the original at The Wall Street Journal, 22 February 2021. Another voting machine maker, Smartmatic, also sued Lindell on January 21 2022."MyPillow CEO faces defamation lawsuit from second voting machine maker" by Lauren Aratani, Guardian, 2022 January 21
Bizarrely, Lindell has levied his bullshit "election fraud" claims even on states that solidly went for Trump. Lindell successfully pestered the state of Idaho to conduct an audit of the votes, alleging that there was widespread voting fraud flipping Trump votes to Biden, even though Trump carried Idaho with 63.8 percent of the vote. Among the allegations made was that electronic manipulation occurred in all 44 Idaho counties (in spite of 7 Idaho counties having no electronic steps in their vote counting process). While Idaho election officials did conduct the audit (and found no evidence of fraud), they nonetheless were rather miffed at Lindell, threatening to send him the bill for the cost of the audit."Idaho Secretary of State refutes Mike Lindell’s statewide election manipulation claims" by KMVT News Staff, KMTV, 2021 September 29"Idaho GOP official says he is sending Mike Lindell bill for election audit" by Lexi Lonas, The Hill, 2021 October 8 Later, in January 2022, they also sent a cease and desist order to Lindell demanding that he remove his bullshit election fraud claims about Idaho off his website."Idaho officials are asking Mike Lindell to stop lying about their election results and billing the pillow CEO for the $6,500 they spent refuting his voter-fraud claims" by Cheryl Teh, Business Insider, 2022 January 20
==2021 coup attempt==
Lindell's rhetoric and support helped lay the groundwork for the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6th, 2021. He sponsored a two week "March for Trump" bus tour in December 2020, in which he continued to propagate assorted conspiracy theories regarding the election. Lindell sponsored and participated in the pre-riot warm-up show (Trump rally), and had even spoken the day before at rallies in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC. Lindell is a supporter of the an obscure pro-Trump television propaganda outlet.David D. Kirkpatrick, Mike McIntire and Christiaan Triebert, Before the Capitol Riot, Calls for Cash and Talk of Revolution. The New York Times, 16 January 2021. Following the violence and failed coup, Lindell refused to back down on his election conspiracy bullshit, instead spouting more false claims, this time the "Antifa did 1/6" conspiracy theory.Joseph Tanfani, Michael Berens, and Ned Parker, How Trump’s pied pipers rallied a faithful mob to the Capitol. Reuters, 11 January 2021.David Corn, Sponsors of the Pre-Attack Rally Have Taken Down Their Websites. Don’t Forget Who They Were. Mother Jones, 12 January 2021.
Following up the failed coup attempt of January 6, Lindell was invited to the White House, where he apparently intended to present a memo outlining plans for martial law.A pillow salesman apparently has some ideas about declaring martial law by Philip Bump (Jan. 15, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. PST) The Washington Post. Lindell subsequently claimed ignorance of the memo (the contents of which were partially-photographed in his hand by the Washington Post), claiming that an unnamed lawyer had asked him to give it to Trump.Trump to flee Washington and seek rehabilitation in a MAGA oasis: Florida by Philip Rucker et al. (Jan. 16, 2021 at 2:01 p.m. PST) The Washington Post.
==His bullshit claims about the 2020 election just won't stop==
Lindell was permanently banned from Twitter on January 26, 2021 for breaking Twitter's rules which prohibited making false claims about the 2020 election.Brakkton Booker, My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell Permanently Suspended From Twitter. NPR, 26 January 2021. On Tucker Carlson's show that evening, Lindell claimed that his Twitter account was taken over by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and that posts from his account in the days prior to the account's suspension were fabricated by Twitter staff.William Bredderman, This Ex-SNL Star Is Giving MyPillow Guy the Floor for His Conspiracy Rants. The Daily Beast, 30 January 2021. In reality, Lindell is delusional. Twitter doesn't need a reason to suspend accounts; it's a private company offering a free service. Demonstrating what bullshit that excuse was, Lindell then decided to use the official corporate MyPillow Twitter account to continue tweeting his crazy whines about election fraud and Dorsey. This got the corporate MyPillow Twitter account suspended as well (for ban evasion) on February 1, 2021."The MyPillow guy tweeted his company's official Twitter account into a permanent ban" by Caitlin Welsh, Mashable, 2021 February 1
Much of Lindell's election fraud arguments (similarly to those by Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, and others) revolved around baseless fraud allegations involving voting machines, especially those made by In January 2021, Dominion got sick and tired of all the inane bullshit Lindell was spouting off, infringing on his untouchable freeze-peach by sending him a cease-and-desist letter, threatening to sue for defamation if he didn't recant his accusations."Lindell says Twitter ban won't stop his effort to claim election fraud" by Kristen Leigh Painter, Stephen Montemayor and Kristen Leigh Painter and Stephen Montemayor, Star Tribune, 2021 January 26"Dominion sends cease and desist letter to My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell" by Ursula Perano, Axios, 2021 January 18 Lindell's response was defiant, welcoming a potential lawsuit and confident that he somehow had "100% evidence that China and other countries used their machines to steal the election." On February 2nd, Lindell appeared on Newsmax to talk about his Twitter suspensions, and whether they fit into the "cancel culture" narrative often pushed by conservative media. Newsmax previously was also promoting baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, however on December 21, 2020, another voting machine company, sent them a cease and desist letter, which tempered the conspiracy talk considerably."Fox News, Newsmax Walk Back Election Fraud Claims After Voting Machine Manufacturer Threatens Legal Action" by Jernima McEvoy, Forbes, 2020 December 21 Not knowing the difference between mere garden variety bullshit and potentially slanderous bullshit, Lindell went off-topic and ranted baseless conspiracies about Dominion voting machines. This forced Newsmax anchor to read a prepared disclaimer that "we at Newsmax have not been able to verify any of those kinds of allegations" and try to steer Lindell back on the "cancel culture" narrative. Eventually this led to Sellers walking off the set, having failed to stop Lindell from committing potential slander."Newsmax anchor walks off set after failing to stop MyPillow CEO's false rigged-election rant" by Bill Keveney, USA Today, 2021 February 2
On February 5, 2021, teaming up with Brannon Howse and his "WorldViewWeekend" fake news outlet (to the point where Lindell offered a "WVW" coupon code, and assurance that a portion of every MyPillow purchase would support Howse's batshit insanity), Lindell released a "documentary" called Absolute Proof."Absolute Proof: Exposing Election Fraud and The Theft of America by Enemies Foreign and Domestic" by Brannon Howse, Worldview Weekend, 2021 February 5 The "documentary" consists of two hours of Lindell and a few other talking heads babbling the same tired, debunked claims of election fraud"Mike Lindell’s Election Fraud Movie ‘Absolute Proof’ Has Absolutely No Proof" by Paul Blest, Vice, 2021 February 5 that had gotten Donald Trump's "legal team" laughed out of court over 60 times in the previous 3 months."By the numbers: President Donald Trump's failed efforts to overturn the election" by William Cummings, Joey Garrison, and Jim Sergent, USA Today, 2021 Jan 6 Lindell then purchased airtime on One America News Network so he could air this bullshit documentary for 12 hours straight. (Although, in a half-hearted attempt to shirk responsibility from any potential libel lawsuits, even OAN felt the need to air a disclaimer distancing themselves from Lindell before the beginning of every showing.)"OAN to air three-hour movie from MyPillow CEO" by Cameron Jenkins, Hill, 2021 February 5Matthew Gertz, OAN is airing MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's documentary about how the election was stolen for twelve consecutive hours today. Here's the disclaimer at the top indicating that it is paid programming, "opinion only," and OAN doesn't endorse statements re: Dominion/Smartmatic. Archived from the original on Twitter, 5 February 2021. Absolute Proof would later earn Lindell the Golden Raspberry Awards for "Worst Actor" and "Worst Picture,"In a Year When Everything Sucked, Everybody Gets a Little Something from The 41st Annual Razzie® Awards, Including a Governors’ Trophy for 2020 Itself! razzies.com. an honor he now shares with fellow right-wing charlatan Dinesh D'Souza.
In March 2021, Lindell continued his descent into madness, claiming on Steve Bannon's podcast that he is filing a voter fraud lawsuit, and as a result, the United States Supreme Court will invalidate the results of the 2020 election and install Trump as President in August 2021. He also announced a new "documentary" entitled Absolute Interference that he claims will contain evidence notably lacking in the previously released and widely mocked Absolute Proof. Lindell also announced that he is developing a new social media platform for right wing extremists and conspiracy theorists.Zachary Petrizzo, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's latest rant is too bonkers for even Steve Bannon to handle. Salon, 29 March 2021.Brendan Cole, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Promises to 'Dump' New Election Fraud Evidence in Coming Weeks. Newsweek, 31 March 2021.
In April 2021, Lindell upped the insanity (and tried to catch a few more viral headlines) by attempting to promote an alternative Internet for his "vision", as more vendors stopped carrying his MyPillow products due to his bullshit fraud claims."My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell says Costco has stopped selling his products" by Lexi Lonas, TheHill, 2021 April 13 Speaking to Steve Bannon, Lindell announced a "rival to " called MyStore (though this was already a section of MyPillow's website since October 2019, and in contrast to Amazon, sold mostly kitschy novelty trinkets)."MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Announces He's Launching 'MyStore,' a Patriotic Rival to Amazon" by Christina Zhao, Newsweek, 2021 April 12"Mike Lindell to Launch MyStore.com at 'Made In America' Trade Show, press release, Mike Lindell, 2019 September 24"Jimmy Kimmel Had A Field Day With The MyPillow Guy’s New Website That Will Somehow Compete With Amazon" by Mike Redmond, Uproxx, 2021 April 14 Also, in a separate video post, Lindell announced the creation of a new social media site called "Frank". Promising "a platform like no other" (or a muddled combination of Twitter and YouTube features, take your pick), Lindell declared that the new site will be "the most secure platform ever", and would also strive to fight against "cancel culture" and "political correctness". The site also vowed to be the "voice of free speech". (Except, fuck, no fucking cursing was allowed on Frank, and even taking the Lord's name in vain was fuckin' banned, goddammit. What bullshit.)"Mike Lindell says new free speech social media site ‘Frank’ will block swearing, porn, and blasphemy" by Oliver O'Connell, Independent, 2021 April 13"MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's social-media site is now called Frank, and it's launched as a static webpage – take a look" by Grace Dean, Business Insider, 2021 March 24
On 19 April 2021, Lindell initiated a complaint against Dominion Voting systems in Minnesota federal court. In this laughable suit, Lindell claims that Dominion is a state actor that violated MyPillow's free speech rights, and that the company initiated a "media blitzkrieg to inflict a crippling fear of becoming the next target for destruction if one dares to raise any question about the use and integrity of voting machines during elections."MyPillow versus Dominion Voting Systems, United States District Court, District of Minnesota, 2021. The suit claims that Dominion violated MyPillow's free speech rights while simultaneously asserting that it had nothing to say and no speech to suppress.Elizabeth Dye, MyPillow Files Civil Rights Suit Against Dominion Voting, Which Is… The Government Now? Above the Law, 20 April 2021. This happened at the same time as Lindell launched the Frank Speech "social media" platform with a streaming video of him interviewing various "personalities." The launch quickly turned into a spectacular fail, as prospective users were unable to create accounts, or post, or do anything at all, except for view the website's main page consisting of news reports from other internet sites.Jason Murdock, Mike Lindell's Platform Frank Is Live but Fans Say They Can't Make Accounts. Newsweek, 20 April 2021.Andrew Paul, The livestream launch of the MyPillowGuy's "free speech" social media site is a glorious disaster, everyone. AV Club, 20 April 2021.
Lindell continued firing up the QAnon crowd in 2021 by giving traction to a ridiculous conspiracy theory that Trump will be reinstated as President by the United States Supreme Court in August 2021, based on purported "evidence" of election fraud he has collected since the 2020 election. The conspiracy theory, supported by fellow raving lunatics such as Sidney Powell and Michael Flynn, has no chance of happening.Grace Panetta and Jake Lahut, Why Trump can't be 'reinstated' as president by August. Business Insider, 2 June 2021. At a QAnon kook rally in Tampa, Florida, in June 2021, Lindell said that Trump "will be in office by this fall, for sure" and that he's going to have a "cyber symposium" where "cyber guys" will prove that the election was stolen via "packet capture."Kyle Mantyla, Mike Lindell Promises ‘Donald Trump Will Be in Office by This Fall, For Sure’ Right Wing Watch, 22 June 2021.
By July 2021, some of Lindell's ad buys on Fox News were being rejected for containing too many bullshit winks and nudges to Lindell's bizarre election fraud claims. At the end of July, Lindell responded by pausing advertisements on Fox News."MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell Looks To Pull Ads From Fox News After Spot Is Rejected" by Matt Grobar, Deadline, 2021 July 29"Fox says MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has decided to 'pause' his pillow ads amid election crusade" by Brian Stelter, CNN Business, 2021 July 30 Lindell returned to running advertisements on Fox News in late September 2021, but only after switching to the relatively safe GOP boogeyman of "cancel culture"."MyPillow Guy Returns to Fox News With Ad Whining About ‘Cancel Culture’" by Justin Baragona, Daily Beast, 2021 September 30
==The Cyber Symposium Farce==
In mid August 2021, Lindell held his "cyber symposium", which ended up being as spectacular of a disaster as you might expect. The conference took place around the same time that Lindell lost a bid in court to dismiss the lawsuit against him from Dominion Voting Systems."Judge says $1.3-billion defamation suit against Lindell, MyPillow can proceed" by Kristen Leigh Painter, Star Tribune, 2021 August 11
Lindell's hired cyber expert to prove fraud via "packet captures", Josh Merritt, admitted that Lindell's supposed 37 terabytes of “irrefutable” evidence couldn't prove anything at all, and also confirmed that the source of Lindell's data was a software designer and noted con artist best known for scamming the Pentagon in 2010."The spectacular implosion of Mike Lindell" by Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 2021 August 12"EXCLUSIVE: Cyber expert says his team can’t prove Mike Lindell’s claims that China hacked election" by Joseph Clark, The Washington Times, 2021 August 11 Even Steve Bannon wasn't impressed by Lindell's inability to show any sort of proof."'This Is a Mistake': Steve Bannon Slams Mike Lindell's Symposium for Not Proving Voter Fraud" by Daniel Villarreal, Newsweek, 2021 August 11
Another longtime cybersecurity expert named Bill Alderson, who actually was very familiar with packet capture analysis, attended the conference out of a legitimate desire to "discover the truth". However, Alderson discovered that not only did the data fail to prove anything about the 2020 election, but the files weren't even in the defacto standard file format (eg .pcap / Libpcap) that one would expect, given that Libpcap files are almost universally recognized by most standard packet capture / packet analysis software out there. As Lindell had offered up a $5 million reward to anyone who could disprove the accuracy of the data, Alderson demanded that Lindell pay him the money for peddling such obvious bullshit. (Lindell, naturally, responded by complaining about Alderson on the usual right-wing podcasts.)"Mike Lindell lashes out as cyber expert demands $5M reward for debunking election data" by Brett Bachman, Salon, 2021 August 18 
Software forensics expert also attended the conference and came to similar conclusions as Alderson. According to Zeidman, some of the "proof of fraud" documents were actually files filled with random gibberish; in addition, the "last modified" date for the files was dated only a couple weeks before the farce began, meaning that it could not solidly be used as proof for anything related to the 2020 election."I Uncovered Fraud at Mike Lindell's Cyber Symposium on the Presidential Election" by Bob Zeidman, LinkedIn, 2021 August 14 When Lindell refused to pay, Zeidman sued Lindell. On April 20, 2023, an arbitration panel ordered Lindell to pay Zeidman the $5 million."My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell ordered to follow through with $5 million payment to expert who debunked his false election data" by Sara Murray, CNN, 2023 April 20
A portion of Lindell's conference was spent attacking other right wing media sources that disregarded the event, such as the aforementioned Fox News. Bizarrely even for Lindell, he even inferred that a writer for the Gateway Pundit who was critical of Lindell was a CIA plant."Fox News Is Snubbing Mike Lindell’s Shitshow ‘Symposium.’ And the MyPillow Guy Is Pissed." by Justin Baragona, Daily Besat, 2021 August 11"WATCH: Mike Lindell Makes Bonkers Accusation — Even For Him — Live On Stage" by Caleb Howe, Mediaite, 2021 August 12
To top this shitshow off, the conference gave prominent stage time to a Colorado county clerk named Tina Peters, who was beginning to get into additional hot legal water due to some voting machine security breaches that she aided. Peters had previously been subject to a failed recall vote due to horrible incompetent management of the 2019 general election,"The attempted recall of Mesa County’s clerk comes up short. But the battle over her office isn’t over." by Nancy Lofholm, Colorado Sun, 2020 August 3 and had tweeted election conspiracy theories after the 2020 election."Peters tweets conspiracy theory over election system" by Charles Ashby, Daily Sentinel, 2021 January 5 At some point in May 2021, Peters turned off surveillance cameras monitoring stored Mesa County voting equipment (a security breach that was not discovered until some time in August). During this time period, some voting machines were illegally accessed and had images of their hard drives downloaded. In addition, on May 25 2021, during a "trusted build" software update that Dominion employees performed on the Mesa County voting machines (a highly regulated process in which, during the update, only staff members from Mesa County, the Secretary of State, and Dominion could be present), Peters introduced an unauthorized person as a "staff member", who was able to observe the process. This rogue "staff member" ended up filming the "trusted build" update. Later, this video was uploaded onto a Telegram channel run by former 8chan administrator Ron Watkins, where the uploader claimed (falsely) that this was evidence that the machines could be remotely administered."Elections Official Accused of Helping Leak Data to QAnon Leader" by David Gilbert, Vice, 2021 August 13 In addition, footage of passwords related to the county's voting systems were leaked to a far-right wing blog. Combined, this forced Colorado to junk Mesa County's voting equipment as unusable for the next election in November 2021."Colorado Republican official accused after voting system passwords are leaked to right-wing site" by Kim Bellware, Washington Post, 2021 August 12
Naturally, at the conference, Peters made a speech complaining that the investigation of her office was politically motivated. Watkins also was a speaker. During his presentation time, he started showing files and directories from the compromised voting machine hard drive as bullshit "evidence" of the fraud. Watkins' lawyer quickly called and stopped him from doing so, due to the highly questionable legality of showing the internal files of a hacked hard drive to the public.
As one might expect, the allegations of Peters' election conduct were serious enough for the FBI (as well as the state of Colorado and the Mesa County District Attorney) to open an investigation on her conduct. Lindell responded to this news by moving her to a "safe house", adding obstruction of justice to his list of potential misdeeds."Mike Lindell Is Hiding an Alleged Election Data Leaker Under FBI Probe" by David Gilbert, Vice, 2021 August 19 Peters, who came out of hiding in mid-September 2021,"Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters reappears, speaks publicly at Grand Junction church" by Erin Powell, 9News, 2021 September 17 was eventually stripped of her right to run the November 2021 election by a Mesa County District Court Judge on October 14, 2021."Judge rules Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters is barred from supervising November election" by Sara Wilson, Coloardo Newsline, 2021 October 14 In March 2022, Peters was indicted for seven felonies and three misdemeanors for her election tampering activity."Mesa Clerk Tina Peters charged in election security breach" by Bente Birkeland and Megan Verlee, CPR News, 2022 March 9 Peters was found guilty of seven of the ten charges (including four of the felonies) on August 13 2024, and sentenced to nine years in prison shortly afterwards on October 3."Ex-county clerk found guilty of election interference" by Rachel Looker, BBC, 2024 August 13"Tina Peters, former Colorado clerk, sentenced to 9 years behind bars in election interference case", CBS News, October 3 2024
==Still promoting the Big Lie==
Unfortunately, the complete failure of the symposium taught Lindell nothing, and he continued doggedly pursuing his evidence-free, jaw-jaw-heavy promotion of the Big Lie of Donald Trump afterwards. Increasingly, however, both the press and the public stopped paying much attention. The few exceptions tended to be whenever Lindell's statements went into much greater batshit insane territory than usual. An example of such occurred on January 2022, when Lindell proclaimed that he had enough evidence to put "everyone in prison for life, 300 and some million people"."Are you one of the 1 in 11 Americans Mike Lindell doesn’t want to arrest?" by Philip Bump, Washington Post, 2022 January 12 (For comparison, the estimated population of voting age Americans in 2020 was 256,662,010.)"Estimates of the Voting Age Population for 2020", National Archives Federal Register, document 86 FR 24379, 2021 May 6
In August 2022, Lindell held another "election fraud" summit in Springfield, Missouri. Most major news media sources stayed well away. Few other people noticed — attendance was estimated by a local paper at around 400 people, and the streaming viewership wasn't that much better."The MyPillow CEO believes big tech and media caused the poor performance of his election fraud event" by Graig Graziosi, Independent, 2022 August 30
In September 2022 Lindell was named in an FBI investigation over his cell phone records going to Colorado County Clerk Tina Peters in relation to the aforementioned election tampering investigation."Mike Lindell's Cell Phone Seized by the FBI" by Graham Kates, CBS News, 2022 September 14 Lindell subsequently sued the FBI and DOJ claiming that the confiscation of his phone as a result of the investigation violated his constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure and was an attempt to chill his freedom of speech."Lindell sues to recover cellphone seized by FBI agents" via Associated Press, US News, 2022 September 21. This lawsuit was rejected by district court judge in November 2022."Pillow salesman and Trump ally Mike Lindell loses court bid to reclaim phone seized by FBI, access warrant details" by Katelyn Polantz, CNN, 2022 November 3
In the aftermath of the 2022 midterm elections, Lindell claimed to possess evidence showing voter fraud and election rigging in multiple election contests.Bill McCarthy, Mike Lindell revives baseless 'vote spike' claims after 2022 midterms APF USA via Yahoo News, 11 11 November 2022. Of course, none of his claims have any basis in fact. Subsequent evidence showed that the youth vote between 18-29 in the 2022 elections have a 27% turnout rate. This also disproves Lindell's argument of the election being stolen one way or another because the majority of Trump endorsed candidates have lost the 2022 elections. Note there are allegations under investigation as of 2022 to overturn the 2022 elections."‘They Were All Stolen,’ Says MyPillow CEO Lindell on Failed Election Denier Candidates" James O'Rourke, Colorado Times Recorder, 17 November 2022. "Turnout among young voters was the second highest for a midterm in past 30 years" Ashley Lopez, NPR News, 10 November 2022.
In December 2022 Lindell announced his candidacy for the Republican National Committee chair campaign.Graham Kates, MyPillow guy Mike Lindell wants to run the Republican Party CBS News, 29 November 2022. Lindell's candidacy was immediately endorsed by Stephen Colbert:
His magnificent candidacy for the party chair ended in complete humiliation, as he only managed to get four votes out of 168 voting members.GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel wins party leadership vote. AP via NPR, 27 January 2023.
Lindell's Twitter account was reinstated in December 2022, and he immediately resumed spouting election conspiracy theories.Mike Lindell, Twitter account reinstated, resumes election fraud accusations CBS News, 16 December 2022.
As if 2020 election conspiracy theories weren't enough, in late December 2022, Lindell made some headlines by making baseless election conspiracy theories about the 2022 Florida governor election, which was won by the Republican, Ron DeSantis. At the time, DeSantis was widely seen as Trump's top rival in the 2024 election due to a poor performance by Trump-endorsed MAGA candidates in the 2022 midterms, which compared unfavorably with DeSantis' solid victory. Thus, a possible explanation for this unusual attack, aside from desperate attention seeking, is perhaps Lindell's unswerving, devoted loyalty to Trump."Mike Lindell questions DeSantis 2022 election win: ‘I don’t believe it’" by Caroline Vakil, Hill, 2022 December 23"Mike Lindell turns his ‘stolen election’ fantasies on new target: DeSantis" by Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 2022 December 21"Trump vs. DeSantis: A simmering rivalry bursts into view" by Steve Peoples and Jill Colvin, AP News, 2022 November 12 Multiple conservative commentators made fun of the Lindell "clown show" afterwards, showing that even in the conservative universe, Lindell was quickly fading into irrelevance."Mike Lindell Is Finally Running Out of Friends in MAGA World" by Jon Jackson, Newsweek, 2022 December 23
In January 2023 Lindell ranted about the House Speaker dispute and accused Marjorie Taylor Greene of breaking her promise for voting for Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker. At the same time, Lindell was in a pissing match with Ronna McDaniels over the Republican Party chairman seat and resorted to making allegations without direct evidence.MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said Marjorie Taylor Greene 'broke her promise' by backing Kevin McCarthy for House Speaker by Sarah Al-Arshani, Insider, 7 January 2023.RNC Run Like 'Big Money-Laundering Operation,' Trump Ally Mike Lindell Says by Thomas Kika, Newsweek, 31 December 2022.
In April 2023 Lindell was ordered to pay a settlement of US$5 million to a data scientist who proved that his evidence for vote tampering in the 2020 election was complete bullshit.Mike Lindell's company told to pay $5 million in "Prove Mike Wrong" challenge". CBS News, 20 April 2023.Trump ally Lindell ordered to pay $5 million to man who disproved voter fraud claims Reuters, 20 April 2023MyPillow founder ordered to pay $5M in election data dispute, AP News, 20 April 2023. The ruling was upheld on appeal in February 2024, and a reportedly broke Lindell was ordered to pay up "in thirty days".Brett Bachman, Mike Lindell Must Pay Man Who Debunked His Election Claims, Judge Rules. Daily Beast, 22 February 2024.
In October 2023, Lindell's legal team in defamation lawsuits brought by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic asked to be removed from the case, as Lindell hasn't paid them in several months and says he's broke:
In February 2024, Lindell was named as one of the supporters to recall Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, because he accused the state legislator of not rigging the election for Trump.Pillow company executive headlines Racine County rally to recall Assembly Speaker Robin Vos by Chuck Quirmbach, WUWM Radio, 5 February 2024
=="$14.88 for a new pillow"==
Given how closely aligned Lindell has become with Trump, it is safe to say he is also a fascist, with supporting evidence based on his other fascistic rhetoric (big lie, election conspiracy denialism, coup support). Lindell's claim of ignorance as to the Nazi meaning of what the $14.88 sales price for his pillows, therefore rings hollow.Trump-Loving Pillow CEO Claims Ignorance of Nazi Symbolism in Price by Liam Archacki (Sep. 26, 2024 12:19PM EDT) The Daily Beast.Trump ally says he did not intend Nazi symbolism by selling pillows for $14.88: But Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, says he won’t remove the ads despite criticism by Ron Kampeas (September 26, 2024) Forward.
==External links==
*frankspeech.com Lindell's complete and total colossal failure trying to imitate a social media powerhouse, and a prime example of how to spend millions of dollars on utter bullshit
*If Trump Doesn’t Keep You Up All Night, MyPillow Will (New York Magazine, 19 January 2021)
*MyPillow's History Is Not Very Comfy goes into detail about some of the shady things MyPillow (and by extension Lindell) have done, including the false advertising lawsuits, the BOGO fiasco, and the fake COVID cure (iilluminaughtii, YouTube, 11 November 2020) (archive snapshot)
*Why Mike Lindell Can’t Stop A detailed analysis of the rise of Mike Lindell and his descent into madness (Politico, 15 June 2021)
==See also==
*Pious fraud
==References==
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