Pillow fight: Mike Lindell says he was ‘attacked’ at his election fraud symposium
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell told guests at his election fraud “cyber symposium” in South Dakota that he was assaulted at his hotel, according to a report.
Lindell, 60, told attendees Thursday he was “attacked” the night before at his hotel in Sioux Falls amid his three-day event at the South Dakota Heritage Alliance, the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports.
“I’m OK,” Lindell told the crowd. “It hurts a little bit. I just want everyone to know all the evil out there.”
Video posted to Twitter shows Lindell saying he was “attacked” as he got to his hotel, but refused to provide additional details.
He later claimed Antifa or left-wing protesters were involved, but didn’t elaborate, according to a Twitter user who identified himself as a Republican and a former federal prosecutor.
Sioux Falls police spokesman Sam Clemens said early Thursday an officer was planning to talk to Lindell about the incident. Department officials later announced that an assault occurred in a hotel near the symposium at about 11:30 p.m., the newspaper reported.
Clemens did not release the name of any victims involved, citing a law designed to protect victims of crime. An investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made, Clemens said Thursday.
Clemens told the Associated Press no one was taken to the hospital in the alleged assault.
The three-day event, which ended Thursday, was announced in July by Lindell, an outspoken President Donald Trump backer, in hopes of attracting hundreds of “forensic experts” to confirm his claims that voting machines were hacked to change votes intended for Trump to President Biden in November.
But Lindell’s top cyber expert admitted Wednesday they couldn’t prove China hacked the election, the Washington Times reported.
“So our team said, we’re not going to say that this is legitimate if we don’t have confidence in the information,” said cyber expert Josh Merritt, who was hired by Lindell to review 37 terabytes of data that the MyPillow CEO said would prove his claim that China-backed hackers were behind the cyberattack.
Lindell had offered $5 million to anyone at the symposium who could disprove his claim, but the money is no longer being offered, Merritt told the Washington Times.