In an interview with CNN, Lindell said agents were asking him questions about Tina Peters, the Mesa County, Colorado, employee who faces state charges related to a scheme that allegedly allowed an unauthorized person to access election machines. Peters pleaded not guilty.
The FBI is also investigating the security breach, CNN reported.
Lindell said the FBI encounter happened Tuesday afternoon while he was in his car at a Hardee’s restaurant in Minnesota.
On his web show, “The Lindell Report,” he said, “Cars pulled up in front of us, to the side and behind us, and I said, ‘These are either bad guys or the FBI. Well, it turns out it was the FBI.”
Lindell told CNN that agents presented him with the subpoena and asked for his phone number.
On his web show, Lindell said: “Well, I’ve got some bad news… he says, ‘We’re taking your cell phone. We have a warrant for your cell phone.”
Lindell initially objected and consulted his attorney, but then relented and provided the device to agents.
“I want to say for the record, they were really nice guys. None of them had an attitude,” Lindell said on his show.
Lindell told CNN he initially believed agents had issued him a subpoena as part of a large sweep of investigative activity in recent days related to the ongoing investigation on Jan. 6, 2021. Agents told him it was unrelated.
“I said, come on, bring me on January 6,” he told agents, “I want to be a part of this show.”
Lindell said the subpoena warned against disclosure.
“They thought they were there to bully me; they’re not going to bully me,” Lindell told CNN.
An FBI spokesman told CNN, “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.”
CNN has reached out to Peters’ attorney for comment.
