Agents served Lindell with a search warrant and grand jury summons Tuesday afternoon in the area of a Hardee’s restaurant in Mankato, Minn., he said on his webcast. Lindell said the agents asked him about Tina Peters A Mesa County, Colo., employee was indicted in March on charges that he helped an outsider copy sensitive data from the county’s May 2021 election systems. The FBI acknowledged that a warrant had been served, but declined to provide further details. “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,” a spokesman for the bureau’s Denver office said in an email. Lindell said FBI agents also questioned him about an image copied from a Mesa County voting machine that was posted on his website, Frank Speech. In a phone interview Wednesday, Lindell told The Washington Post that he was not involved in copying Mesa County’s election management system and did not meet with Peters until he attended a “cyber symposium” held in South Dakota in August 2021. “I have no idea what happened then,” Lindell said. “I have nothing to do with it.” The FBI’s action against Liddell, who used his multimillion-dollar fortune to fund high-profile films, conferences and other media promoting misinformation about the election, signals a broadening of the federal investigation into the alleged violation in Mesa County . The investigation is one of multiple investigations into alleged security breaches at local election offices in states including Michigan and Georgia. Efforts to access sensitive election equipment — in some cases with the help of like-minded local officials — were aimed at finding evidence that the machines were used to rig the 2020 election. Access to such equipment is meant to be tightly controlled. Other Trump allies have recently received calls from federal investigators probing the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and efforts to subvert the election. Lindell told The Post he has not received any subpoenas from a grand jury investigating Jan. 6. A document Lindell presented on his show, which he said was a copy of the search warrant, said the FBI was seeking information about the hacking of Dominion Voting Systems equipment, the which is used in Media and many other counties across the country. Dominion has come under attack from former President Donald Trump and others promoting false conspiracy theories about voter fraud. The company is suing Lindell, Fox News and prominent pro-choice naysayers for defamation. The document said authorities were looking for evidence of possible violations by Lindell, Peters and several other federal laws against identity theft and intentional damage to a protected computer. Liddell also produced a grand jury subpoena, dated Sept. 7, that he said was given to him by FBI agents. The subpoena sought testimony before a federal grand jury in Grand Junction, Colo., on Nov. 3, but it was unclear from the document whether Lindell was required to testify or simply provide his phone. Liddell also showed The Post a copy of the subpoena. Peters and two other Mesa officials were previously indicted in a state court on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges, including conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. Prosecutors accuse them of participating in a scheme that allowed Conan Hayes, a former pro-surfer who reinvented himself as a data expert, to access Mesa County’s election systems and copy sensitive records in May 2021. Peters pleaded not guilty while her former deputy, Belinda Knisley, agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges and testify “at any trial in any venue” involving Peters or others involved in the alleged Mesa County violation, according to the agreement debt. Speaking on his show, Lindell said he advised FBI agents to check his website for the image of the voting machine. “They wanted to know about the picture. I said, ‘You can see the picture here at Frank Speech — we’ve got all the evidence here for you,’” Lindell said. In the interview Wednesday morning, Lindell claimed he was targeted because of his efforts to get rid of electronic voting machines. “You think I’m going to give up now?” he said mockingly. He said he would welcome the opportunity to speak to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, but claimed they “wouldn’t have me because I would bring the evidence … that the election was stolen.” Dozens of judges rejected post-election challenges by Trump and his allies, while many local, state and federal officials said allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election were without merit. Lindell sent his private plane last year to pick up Peters in Colorado and take her to his banquet, according to an email Peters wrote. Lindell previously told The Post that he had paid for Peters’ lodging, security and lawyers after her appearance at the event sparked an investigation by state and federal officials. Hayes, who has not been charged, was among five people named in the federal search warrant served on Lindell. A phone number listed for Hayes in law enforcement documents is no longer in service. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Post in recent months about his alleged involvement in the Mesa system and alleged hacks of voting machines in other states. The document Lindell presented also names Douglas Frank, a longtime Ohio math and science teacher who claims to have discovered secret algorithms used to rig the 2020 election. Frank met with Peters in her office in April 2021 and “showed her how her election was rigged,” The Post previously reported. He told her that an upcoming Dominion software update could erase the data needed to show that the election had been stolen and relay her request for technical assistance to copy that data to others. “I didn’t do anything illegal,” Frank told the Post via text message Wednesday morning. He said the FBI did not issue him a search warrant. On his show, Lindell also presented a grand jury subpoena dated Sept. 7 that he said was given to him by FBI agents. The subpoena sought “documents/items” for a federal grand jury hearing in Grand Junction, Colo., on Nov. 3. Lindell showed the Post a copy of the subpoena and said he understood it did not require him to testify. “As the recipient of a subpoena, you have no obligation of confidentiality,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Teitelbaum wrote. “However, we ask that you do not disclose the existence of this subpoena for an indefinite period of time.” Bryan Pietsch and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report.
