Last year, the FBI famously seized Mike Lindell‘s cell phone while the MyPillow CEO was sitting in a Hardee’s drive-thru, the most Mike Lindell of places to be. Lindell has been a central figure in pushing Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen, and those efforts got him indicted in Colorado where he and others allegedly breached several Dominion Voting Systems machines to prove Trump’s election fraud claims.
In short, the FBI didn’t seize Lindell’s phone for kicks, and an appeals court has sided with the feds. In a new ruling, Lindell’s request to have the phone returned was denied on the simple grounds that, clearly, the FBI had probable cause to execute the warrant.
Via Raw Story:
“Here, a federal magistrate judge determined there was probable cause to seize and search Lindell’s cell phone. The warrant explicitly authorized the search of Lindell’s person for his cell phone as well as the seizure and search of the phone for records and information constituting ‘fruits, evidence, or instrumentalities’ of the three federal offenses” Lindell is being charged with, the ruling says.
Those charges include identity theft, damage to a protected computer and conspiracy to commit identity theft and/or cause intentional damage to a protected computer.
It also didn’t help Lindell’s case that he already admitted to backing up the phone, according to Law & Crime. However, the MyPillow CEO was given a surprising glimmer of hope. The appeals ruling did suggest that Lindell could file a new motion “based on the length of retention,” a matter that has not yet been addressed by the lower court.
“Given the necessity of cell phones in everyday life and the related privacy concerns regarding the breadth of data that they contain, the government’s continued retention of Lindell’s cell phone and all its data (including that which is entirely unrelated to the government’s investigation), without adequate justification, could amount to a callous disregard of Lindell’s constitutional rights,” the ruling said.
(Via Raw Story, Law & Crime)
Source: https://uproxx.com/viral/mike-lindell-lost-appeal-phone-seized-fbi-hardees/
