The Washington Post has claimed conservative MyPillow boss Mike Lindell was behind an electoral hacking incident in Ohio this May — in which no sensitive data was taken.
The paper, owned by Amazon boss and amateur astronaut Jeff Bezos, tried to link Mike Lindell on Friday to an incident last May when a private laptop computer was allegedly plugged in at the office of Lake County Board of Commissioners Chairman John Hamercheck on 4 May.
That was the date of primaries for a special election in Ohio's 11th congressional district, caused by sitting Representative Marcia Fudge's appointment as President Joe Biden's housing secretary. Democratic candidate Shontel Brown won the November election by a 79 percent landslide.
The so-called "data breach" was also a non-event, with state and county officials reassuring the public that no private information or sensitive data was taken.
Hamercheck told the Post he was "aware of no criminal activity", adding: "I have absolute confidence in our board of elections and our IT people".
But, six months after the fact, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose claimed the incident was part of an attempted "vigilante investigation" into ballot-rigging.
“It’s concerning that somebody would — especially somebody in a government office, somebody who is an elected official, or somebody who’s part of county government — would … try to engage in some sort of vigilante investigation”, LaRose told the Post.
The WaPo made the connection to MyPillow via Douglas Frank, an alleged close associate of Lindell, who it said had discussions with Ohio county officials before the incident in May. Frank told the newspaper he had been travelling around the country and met some 100 local electoral officers.
Lindell has publicly supported former President Donald Trump's call for state-by-state audits of the November 2020 presidential election, as has already happened in Arizona.
Trump insists unpopular President Joe Biden only won thanks to widespread electoral fraud through suspect mail-in ballots, sent out en masse without the approval of state legislatures.
Ironically, Bezos' online retail giant Amazon continues to sell the popular MyPillow range of soft goods — despite widespread calls by Democrat supporters for a boycott of Lindell's firm.