Ohio County ‘Shocked’ After Mike Lindell Event Shares Its Computers’ Data, Spurs FBI Probe
An Ohio county was “shocked” after screen shots from its computer system were shared at MyPillow founder Mike Lindell‘s cyber symposium in August to promote baseless claims of election fraud.
Lindell has been a key promoter of former President Donald Trump‘s unfounded conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was “rigged” or “stolen” in favor of President Joe Biden. Although Lindell and others continue to spread the misinformation, the “evidence” they have brought forward to support their theory has been consistently discredited and debunked.
During an August cyber symposium organized by Lindell, screen shots from a Lake County computer system not involved in conducting elections were shared as alleged “evidence” of election fraud, The Washington Post first reported on Friday.
Lake County official quickly began looking into the issue, confused by how and why the information was used in Lindell’s event.
“We were shocked that sleepy little Lake County, where nobody had ever made a suggestion of election malfeasance, was suddenly being splashed around a cyber symposium,” Lake County auditor Christopher Galloway told Cleveland.com.
Galloway said he quickly began working with county and state officials to see how the data had been accessed and shared.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Galloway pointed out that the screen shots and data shared at Lindell’s symposium was “a lot of nothing.” He explained that “it was some copier talking to a desktop saying ‘I am still here waiting for you to send me a print job.'”
He told Cleveland.com that someone in the Lake County commissioners’ offices appears to have plugged a laptop into an ethernet port on the day of Ohio’s May 4 primaries to access and copy the bogus data for several hours.
State and county officials shared their findings with the FBI, which is reportedly investigating. However, they have confirmed that no significant data was compromised.
“We are thrilled that our infrastructure stayed strong,” Ross McDonald, director of the…
