WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and prominent election denier, who unsuccessfully argued his rights were violated when FBI agents seized his phone in 2022.
The federal government was investigating the sharing of sensitive information from Colorado’s computerized voting systems. Lindell was a key ally of Donald Trump.
Lindell’s phone was seized while he was in the drive through lane of a Hardee’s restaurant in Minnesota, as Lindell was on his way home from a duck hunting trip.
“Lindell’s irritation as to where and how the government took possession of his cell phone does not give rise to a constitutional claim, let alone a showing of a callous disregard for his constitutional rights,” Judge Ralph Erickson of the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in decision last September.
The FBI had questioned Lindell about Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk in Colorado who was indicted in 2022 over accusations that she improperly permitted someone to copy access passwords and other files from a secure voting system and post them online, exposing the machines to hackers. Peters has argued the files posted online from the machines she supervised demonstrated flaws in the systems.
Both Peters and Lindell, supporters of former President Donald Trump, pushed baseless theories about the accuracy of the 2020 election.
The Supreme Court previously declined to get involved in a defamation suit against Lindell filed by US Dominion, the company that manufacturers voting machines, including the type used in Mesa County.
In the appeal rejected Monday, Lindell said the government was retaliating against “those who persist in questioning the integrity of computerized voting systems, particularly those used in the 2020 election.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court rejects MyPillow CEO Lindell appeal on phone seizure case
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