Strib, Sept 13, 2022:
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says FBI took his cellphone
WASHINGTON — 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.
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[italics added, per indications of Lindell having a course of discussion with the agent(s) seizing his cellphone]
My interest in this is Doug Wardlow.
Wardlow has been described as attorney for Lindelll's My Pillow business, with it unclear whether Wardlow also is attorney to represent Lindell personally in matters as they arise.
With the voting machine billion dollar defamation suits pending against Lindell someone has to have filed a responsive pleading. Suspecting it could be Wardlow, but allowing that it could be someone else, Lindell's actual personal lawyer shall be hereinafter referred to as, "the attorney."
Recall the FBI got General Flynn on a "lying to an agent" crime, and Trump had to pardon Flynn to get him off the hook.
MAKE NO MISTAKE.The following is speculation and musing, and surely not legal advice to any reader because I am not a lawyer, but only somebody with opinions of a few things. Readers each should have his/her/their own lawyer upon whom they rely for any and all legal advice. That being made clear -
An FBI inquiry/investigation should have been foreseeable, indeed anticipated, from Lindell's going on record asserting all over the world that a massive election fraud sufficient to swing the last Presidential election happened. Also, the fact the FBI secured a warrant was notice to Lindell at that point that the FBI already knew something, somehow, in a way not good for him.
With a foreseeable FBI concern arising about allegations of federal election fraud having been voiced by Lindell, the lawyer should have consulted with Lindell and prepped him for a "what if." That's simple common sense. Not rocket science.
First, again simple common sense, you do not talk to the FBI. They are not your friends. They want to get you on record as easily as they can, to be able to use your statements against you - later/somehow. That suggests silence is golden.
If you blow them off with falsehoods, you are in the place General Flynn was.
A best practice might be attorney-client advance coaching to ask, sequentially, "Am I under arrest," and then "Am I being detained," if not under arrest.
And then if not detained, the client can say, "Great, have a nice day," as he vacates the FBI presence without exchanging any further words with them. A sort of Get-Out-of-Dodge-ASAP plain common sense outlook at play.
Asking to see any/all warrants if there is a seizure is a clear step, since a warrantless seizure differs greatly from one where a probable cause affidavit of a potential crime has been presented to a judge with it appearing sufficient to that judge to sign the warrant.
If asked anything by an FBI agent beyond identifying who you are, one answer would be, "I decline to talk to you unless my lawyer is present." No harm to that.
"I want my lawyer" should always an interrogation stopper if an investigator acts properly under still not undermined Warren Court law.
The lawyer could even have prepared a card for Lindell, to carry around stating sufficient stuff to have the agent back off, with the client handing a card copy to the interrogator, and asking as a courtesy if the agent would date and initial and write a "copy received" note on a second card, for the lawyer's records, not to be rude or anything.
Doug Wardlow wanted to be AG of Minnesota, with an alleged intent to focus on crime. If he was/is "the lawyer," and left client Lindell ill-prepped for an encounter, what would that say about Wardlow's understandings of criminal procedure?
Again, MAKE NO MISTAKE. Speculation is speculation, not legal advice from a non-lawyer to anyone, in any manner or fashion, whatsoever.
It is just where was Wardlow and doing what to prep Lindell for a foreseeable thing; if it was his responsibility per some attorney/client relationship to protect Lindell's rights?
And, who knows, if confronted tomorrow by an FBI agent or three, I could be intimidated into unwise things, even while having my own personal ideas of how I should cooly handle myself in such circumstances.
At least I have thought about it in advance of any such situation happening. Anybody at all concerned about a potential police of federal agent encounter should talk things over with his/her/their lawyer. Or risk error which such advanced consultation might forestall. Again, common sense, always consult and rely upon your personal expert advisor. Not on something you saw on the web.