The FBI’s recent seizure of outspoken Trump ally Mike Lindell’s cell phone adds to growing fears among some citizens that the agency is acting as a political arm of the federal government.
Former President Donald Trump, on his Truth Social account, posted “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.”
The seizure follows August’s nine-hour long raid on the former president’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, the prosecution of former Trump administration strategist Steve Bannon, and other perceived moves by the Biden administration to protect political allies or punish political opponents.
Other prominent leaders weighed in on the latest Trump ally to be investigated under Biden’s FBI. Fox News host Tucker Carlson argued that “the Biden administration has politicized law enforcement to the point where it feels Soviet.”
The FBI conducted the seizure while Lindell waited in the drive-through of a fast-food restaurant in Mankato, Minnesota.
Federal agents, arriving in three separate cars and blocking any possible exit by Lindell, approached his vehicle and, according to an account by Lindell, said, “Well, I got some bad news. We’re taking your cell phone. We have a warrant for your cell phone.”
Despite Lindell’s pleas that his cell phone was central to the management of all five of his businesses and the regulation of his hearing aids, the agents stood behind their orders.
The seizure appears to stem from the government’s position that Lindell and others conspired to gain access to protected voting machines and their records in the wake of the 2020 election.
A review of the warrant used to confiscate Lindell’s phone reveals that government prosecutors believe Lindell and several other “co-conspirators” potentially violated three federal offenses: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1028(a)(7) identity theft, 1030(a)(5)(A) intentional damage to a protected computer, and 371 conspiracy to commit identity theft and/or to cause intentional damage to a protected computer.
The warrant was issued as part of a federal investigation into a Colorado election security breach involving Tina Peters, a Mesa County, Colorado clerk facing state charges for allegedly allowing an unauthorized person access to voting machines in an attempt to identify evidence that the election had been defrauded.
“The government weaponized the FBI, trying to scare me, trying to scare other people, but it didn’t change a thing,” Lindell said in an interview with The Epoch Times. “This is Gestapo in Nazi Germany. This is what we’re up against.”
After the incident, Lindell appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast and announced, “We are suing the United States government and the FBI, and this isn’t just to get the phone back. My First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights were broken. … We’re not going to put up with this.”