Supreme Court won’t hear election denier Mike Lindell’s challenge over FBI seizure of cellphone

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a petition by MyPillow founder and election denier Mike Lindell to consider his challenge to the legality of the FBI’s seizure of his cell phone during a restaurant drive-through.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined without comment to reconsider three lower court rulings that went against Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the 2020 presidential election from President Donald Trump.

FBI agents seized his cellphone at a Hardee’s fast-food restaurant in the southern Minnesota city of Mankato in 2022 as part of an investigation into an alleged scheme to breach voting system technology in Mesa County, Colorado. Lindell claimed the confiscation violated his constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure and was an attempt by the government to curtail his freedom of speech.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

“Although he has at times attempted to claim otherwise, Lindell’s purpose in this action is clear: this lawsuit is a tactic to at least disrupt and at most coerce a criminal investigation and ultimately hinder any potential federal prosecution,” wrote a three-judge appeals panel last September.

When Lindell turned to the Supreme Court in February, his lawyers said Lindell still had not gotten his phone back.

Monday’s decision was the latest in a series of legal and financial setbacks for Lindell, who is being sued for defamation by two voting machine companies. Lawyers who initially defended him in those cases dropped out due to unpaid bills.

A credit crunch last year disrupted cash flow at MyPillow after it lost Fox News as one of its main advertising platforms and was dropped by several national retailers. A judge in February upheld a $5 million arbitration award to a software engineer who disputed data that Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 election.