Lindell, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, is a key promoter of the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen” in favor of President Joe Biden. Although Lindell has spent millions of his own money in an effort to spread these false allegations, the “evidence” he has presented has been consistently discredited and debunked by election and cybersecurity experts.
During a Friday evening segment of The Lindell Report on the MyPillow founder’s Frank Speech website, the pro-Trump businessman claimed more people are coming forward with claims of election malfeasance.
“We have two whistleblowers—two more today everybody,” Lindell said. “I’m not even going to say what states. I would love to say the one state, but I’m not gonna,” the conspiracy theorist said with a look of excitement on his face.
“And uh—two whistleblowers and one of ’em is pretty high up in uh-uh a company. We won’t name no names,” Lindell continued. “We won’t say,” he said, then listed the names of voting machine companies—including Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems.
“We’ve got that going on,” Lindell promised his viewers.
Lindell has claimed that China worked to hack the 2020 election and switched votes in favor of Biden. This allegation is not corroborated by evidence, and election officials—Republican and Democrat—have repeatedly debunked the claim, saying that voting machines are not even connected to the internet.
The MyPillow founder has also claimed that Smartmatic and Dominion were involved in “rigging” the election for Biden. Both companies have sued Lindell, along with several other Trump allies, for defamation.
“He knows voting machines did not switch votes from former President Trump to now-President Biden,” the Smartmatic lawsuit filed last month says. “These facts do not matter to Mr. Lindell because…he knows he can sell a preconceived story about voting machines stealing democracy by stealing votes from a president who is incredibly popular with millions of Americans. And, of course, Mr. Lindell—’the MyPillow Guy’—knows he needs to sell pillows to keep and increase his fortune.”
In August, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols—who was appointed by Trump—ruled that the Dominion lawsuit against Lindell could move forward. Nichols noted in that decision that “it is simply not the law that provably false statements cannot be actionable if made in the context of an election.”
Despite the claims of Lindell and Trump about the 2020 election, no evidence corroborates their allegations. Dozens of election challenge lawsuits filed by the former president and his supporters failed in state and federal courts. Even judges appointed by Trump ruled against the legal challenges. Meanwhile, audits and recounts across the country—including in areas where the election was overseen by pro-Trump Republicans—have reaffirmed Biden’s victory.
Former Attorney General William Barr, who was widely viewed as one of Trump’s most loyal Cabinet members, said that there is “no evidence” of widespread fraud that would change the presidential election’s outcome. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, while still led by a Trump appointee, said the same, describing the election as the “most secure in American history.”
Regardless, the lies about the 2020 election have resonated strongly with GOP voters. Multiple polls conducted over the past year have shown that a majority of Republicans believe that Trump lost due to widespread fraud and that Biden is not the legitimately-elected president.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s press office for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
