Lindell Claims Texts Revealing Lack of “PCAPS” from Dennis Montgomery “Leaked”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Aug. 13, 2023) — In a discussion Thursday initially focusing on his upcoming “Election Crime Bureau Summit” next week, MyPillow CEO Michael J. Lindell abruptly interrupted the conversation with assistant Brannon Howse to declare, “They just leaked a bunch of texts…The Washington Post just leaked out apparently texts I had from back in the day…this is going around Twitter.”

Accordingly, the interview is captioned, “Someone Just Leaked Mike Lindell’s Private Texts – But Who and Why?”

Election Fraud Claims

Just after the 11:30 mark, Lindell became absorbed in his phone while Howse played a video montage wherein various Democrats, including 2016 presidential candidate and former U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, and Rep. Maxine Waters insisted Al Gore (D) won the 2000 presidential election over George W. Bush (R).

The initial outcome, determined by Florida’s electoral votes to have been a very narrow Bush victory, was affirmed when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that “undervotes” in certain counties could not continue to be recounted as the Gore campaign wanted.

Oddly today, anyone who voices concern over or disbelief about the 2020 election outcome is branded with the label “election denier.” A Trump supporter and early advocate of the claim the election was stolen,” Last year Lindell was described by NPR as an “election denier influencer” disseminating “misinformation” in a “movement” “happening all over the country, including in deep red and blue states.”

Trump is now under criminal prosecution for publicly insisting he lost the election while allegedly being aware the loss was real. “These claims,” Special Counsel Jack Smith wrote in the August 1 indictment narrative, “were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false.”

Enter “Mary Fanning” and Dennis Montgomery

When the video concluded at 14:36, Lindell resumed his conversation with Howse with, “Apparently I’m looking here…um…um…they just leaked to The Washington Post…it looks like text messages between Mary Fanning and myself.”

“Mary Fanning,” also known as Mary Fanning Kirchhoefer, operates “The American Report,” where for years she and co-writer Alan Jones have promoted the allegations of former subcontractor Dennis Montgomery, including that the 2020 election was altered by a “cyberwarfare attack” from China and bad U.S. government actors commandeering Montgomery’s claimed inventions of super-computer “The Hammer” and software package “Scorecard.”

In fact, in early January 2021, through Howse, Fanning introduced Montgomery to Lindell, who immediately adopted Montgomery’s explanation that China changed the election outcome through a cyber-attack. The following month, Fanning, Jones, Howse and Lindell would go on to produce a video series, “Absolute Proof,” in which Fanning, whose background in computer forensics and cybersecurity is opaque at best, narrated a segment claiming pages and pages of spreadsheet data to be conclusive evidence of Montgomery’s assertions.

The Montgomery Backstory

Montgomery has a history of making claims he ultimately does not substantiate, as in the case of an investigation launched in 2014 by then-Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joseph Arpaio. In that case, Montgomery was paid $10,000 monthly for approximately a year to produce his claimed evidence of government intrusions into the bank accounts of more than 150,000 county residents.

“Cold Case Posse” lead investigator Mike Zullo was placed in charge of the investigation even as he continued his probe into Barack Hussein Obama’s alleged “birth certificate” posted on the White House website on April 27, 2011.

After several months during which Montgomery produced nothing tangible to the sheriff’s office, Zullo told The Post & Email, he obtained Arpaio’s approval to take 47 hard drives Montgomery did provide to three former NSA analysts for their expert opinion.

In November 2014, two of those analysts, J. Kirk Wiebe and Thomas Drake, issued a scathing report stating Montgomery placed no evidence of government malfeasance on the drives and was himself attempting to commit fraud “for personal gain and cover.”

U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow incorporated that conclusion in his May 13, 2016 opinion in which he castigated Arpaio and his office in a civil contempt judgment which led to a criminal charge.

In a lengthy 2009 investigative report by Playboy‘s Aram Roston, Montgomery was described as “The Man Who Conned the Pentagon.” Though Montgomery has sued many parties since the early 1980s, the article remains legally unchallenged to this day.

Fanning has more recently been sued for defamation, with a trial, successively postponed for the last 16 months, reset for August 28. Howse was originally a named defendant but dropped from the case last year.

Notably, Fanning and Jones have not credited Zullo for having recorded what the two term “The Whistleblower Tapes” in their promotion of Montgomery’s allegations.

Was Lindell Duped?

“But who would have leaked that?” Howse responded to Lindell’s revelation.

“Well, this would have been CIA stuff is the only thing I can think of,” Lindell responded, “because the only one that got my phone was the FBI; remember that part? and the machine companies: Dominion, Smartmatic and this Coomer,” he said, referring to the plaintiffs in three separate lawsuits alleging defamation as a result of statements made following the 2020 election.

Last September the FBI seized Lindell’s phone after intercepting him at a Hardee’s following a hunting trip. During the encounter, the reportedly FBI posed questions about Mesa County, CO election clerk Tina Peters, who stands accused of election-related crimes and was consequently prohibited from supervising the 2022 election. Lindell has been a supporter of Peters, who is expected to appear at the Election Crime Bureau Summit.

“Dennis Montgomery” came up frequently in Thursday’s remaining exchange with Howse.

At his “The Moment of Truth Summit” last August, Lindell extolled Montgomery’s alleged computer acumen, credibility and past accomplishments in an apparent attempt to convince attendees and the public that Montgomery’s reported claim to possess the key to the 2020 election through his reported capture of “PCAPS” in real time was solid.

Lindell’s attorney, Kurt Olsen, also vouched for Montgomery’s credibility in a lengthy presentation.

More than a year ago, Zullo disclosed to The Post & Email that he attempted to warn Lindell of Montgomery’s history of failing to deliver on his promises, but Lindell hung up on him.

The Protective Order

As he did with Zullo years ago regarding the government’s alleged illegal surveillance, Montgomery claimed to Lindell that the evidence he has on the 2020 election cannot be released publicly due to a government-invoked protective order granted by a federal judge in August 2007.

The order came about as a result of a bitter dispute over copyright between Montgomery and his former business partner, Warren Trepp, arising in 2006 after Montgomery abruptly left eTreppid, the company they founded in 1998.

During his exchange with Howse, Lindell appeared to be unfamiliar with the term “eTreppid,” although the protective order stemmed directly from Montgomery’s work there as a subcontractor to the U.S. Department of Defense and subsequent lawsuit, Montgomery, et al v. eTreppid Technologies, LLC, et al.

It was not until his acquaintance with Lindell that Montgomery claimed to have designed election technology and/or software.

As “Moment of Truth” concluded, Lindell announced he was filing a Motion to Intervene in Montgomery petitioning the court to lift the protective order so he and Montgomery would be free to reveal the alleged technology and information relating to the 2020 election. At that time, Lindell said Montgomery sold him the evidence, arguably confounding Montgomery’s claim to be restricted from releasing it.

The government’s response to Lindell’s Motion and Montgomery’s 194-page “Declaration” was that the protective order does not apply to “voting, elections administration, or Dominion.”

Lindell indicated to Howse that Montgomery is scheduled to provide a deposition following next week’s summit, which would be responsive to Magistrate Judge Kyle C. Dudek’s July 24, 2023 order resulting from Smartmatic’s Motion to Compel Compliance with Third-Party Subpoena in its case against Lindell.

“They have PCAPS,” Lindell told Howse after the 25:00 mark, suggesting Montgomery provided the promised 32 TB of PCAPS to those suing him.

“What timing, five days before this big summit,” he said at 27:00 of the “leak.”

What Do the Texts Say?

Despite Lindell’s optimistic demeanor with Howse, the texts, submitted to Dudek’s court by Smartmatic and catalogued as “Exhibit P,” tell a different story. Posted on Twitter Thursday night by Washington Post journalist Chris Dehghanpoor and undoubtedly that which captured Lindell’s attention while speaking with Howse, they appear to reveal that Lindell told Fanning that, contrary to his public statements, Montgomery provided no PCAPS for release at the Cyber Symposium.

With the texts appearing vertically instead of horizontally in the filing, Dehghanpoor rotated and retyped them for legibility.

The “house” Lindell admitted to purchasing for Montgomery was first reported by Zachary Petrisso, then of Salon.com on September 3, 2021. Montgomery’s business, Blxware LLC, is registered to the same address.

The texts comprise two pages and appear as follows:

Appearing to have been exchanged on the third and final day of the Cyber Symposium when Lindell had promised to release the PCAPS, Lindell told Fanning at one point, “Dennis didn’t give us anything to bring here…no pcaps…he got really upset when I picked up Conan and I asked for the evidence.”

“He told me he gave Conan stuff,” Fanning replied. Lindell responded with:

He said to go have breakfast and we did and he never answered my text or calls after I called him back
No I was there..he gave a file that only contained a small amount of hex data
Conan and I have been stalling them and have no pcaps

The first text, from Fanning to Lindell, claims Montgomery “wonders why no one is going after Larry Johnson and the Gateway Pundit team that attack [sic] him and why we are not standing up for him”.

The Gateway Pundit and Yaacov Apelbaum, founder of XRVision, are plaintiffs in the defamation suit against Fanning and Jones to be heard at the end of the month. Johnson, a former CIA officer, has been critical of Montgomery’s claims.

A Blind Spot?

At the 29:00 mark, Lindell appeared to have just learned of the August 4, 2023 order from the U.S. district court denying his Motion to Intervene as well as Montgomery’s request to lift the protective order. “It’s too explosive,” Lindell claimed the court’s decision signified.

Of the upcoming summit, Lindell said, “It’s a plan to secure our election” as opposed to the revelation of “evidence” of election fraud on which his two previous conferences focused. Lindell added that Montgomery’s evidence is not essential given other reports of election fraud already in the public domain.

At the 37:00 mark, Lindell promoted his Legal Defense Fund launched to combat the litigation he faces.