MyPillow head Mike Lindell filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to challenge the subpoena by the 6 January Capitol riot panel requesting his phone records.
“I wasn’t there on 6 January and yes they did subpoena my phone records but we filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against the 6 January committee and Verizon to completely invalidate this corrupt subpoena,” Lindell said in a text message to CNBC.
Last month, CNBC reported that Lindell appeared to spend $25 million since Election Day in 2020 to support Donald Trump's claims about the alleged "election fraud".
In a lawsuit filed by Lindell's legal team against the members of the 6 January panel, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Verizon communication company, it argued that the MyPillow chief executive “had no involvement whatsoever” in the events of 6 January 2021, when Capitol Hill was overrun by a violent protest.
According to the document, Lindell's support for the election fraud theory stems from his "strongly held religious beliefs".
"Enforcement of the subpoena would violate the rights of Mr Lindell and of his sources to freedom of religion, speech, press, political expression, and to associate with others to advance their shared beliefs," the lawsuit reads, noting that these rights are guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The panel had sought Lindell's records from 1 November 2020, right through to 31 January 2021.
Lindell, who is loud in his support of Trump, is among those who sided with the former president on the claims about the "election fraud" that allegedly snatched victory in the 2020 White House race from Trump.
The MyPillow boss made headlines earlier in January 2021, when he had been spotted outside Trump's White House with a handful of notes that reportedly suggested imposing "martial law if necessary" more than a week after the Capitol riot. In late January that year, Lindell was permanently suspended on Twitter for "repeated violations of our civic integrity policy".
As the House Select Committee's investigation into the Capitol riot continues, Lindell is not the only one whose records the panel wishes to obtain. The White House records of Donald Trump are also of interest to the committee, but the former president vehemently objects to requests he submit his records from the time of the Capitol riot, claiming that it is "unconstitutional" and politicised.