Back in September 2022, the FBI famously seized Mike Lindell’s phone while the MyPillow CEO and die-hard Donald Trump supporter was in the middle of a Hardee’s drive-thru. Lindell immediately sued the FBI for the return of his phone, and to the surprise of no one, the feds still have it. However, Lindell’s case has finally made it to a federal appeals court where the Department of Justice has been forced to defend why isn’t had to return the phone.
As Lindell’s attorney argued that government is trying to “intimidate” the MyPillow CEO because of his “beliefs,” the feds responded that it’s still in the middle of an investigation. Lindell has been a key figure in Trump’s inner circle, who have been the subject of several subpoenas stemming from the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. It also doesn’t help that Lindell has been on the forefront of pushing the former president’s election fraud lies.
Via Law & Crime:
The conservative three-judge panel didn’t wade into his political rhetoric, but at least two of its members appeared skeptical about the government’s retention of Lindell’s cellphone since last September. The Department of Justice’s lawyer said that such an order would be an “extraordinary” remedy, which would remove an important piece of evidence from an ongoing investigation.
“The phone can be important in a criminal case to authenticate that a particular person was holding the phone at a particular time,” the government attorney said.
When asked why the government didn’t just “mirror” the phone, the DOJ argued that “certain evidence can only be gleaned by physical possession of the phone.” The feds’ response should presumably concern Lindell, especially the part about determining when and where he was holding his phone, but accepting reality has never been Lindell’s strong suit.
The MyPillow CEO had to be sued to fork over the $5 million he promised the winner of his “Prove Mike Wrong” contest. Lindell boasted that no one could debunk his supposed trove of “election fraud data,” but a cybersecurity expert did it easily, and he’d like his money, please.
(Via Law & Crime)
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/mike-lindell-phone-not-returned-fbi-appeals-court/
