Did Mary Fanning Achieve Her Goal?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Oct. 15, 2023) — According to Newsweek on October 5, attorneys representing MyPillow CEO Michael J. Lindell in three defamation lawsuits stemming from the 2020 presidential election were granted their motion to withdraw on the grounds that their multi-million-dollar fees have not been paid for “the past couple of months.”

Newsweek has followed Lindell closely, reporting on developments surrounding the entrepreneur almost daily this month.

In a short video released on his website later that day, Lindell told colleague Brannon Howse his attorneys that morning “went to the federal judge to withdraw from the cases because we can’t afford it, we can’t pay ’em anymore.”

“They have families and they have grandkids, kids; you gotta work, you gotta be able to get paid,” he elaborated.

Also that morning, Lindell said, he spoke with various “horrible journalists” from Newsweek, CNN, Politico and ABC News, among others, during which he denied defeat in the wake of his apparently serious financial situation.

Along with his stated inability to pay his legal team, Lindell recently reported a curtailing of his American Express company credit line by 90%.

In early 2021, MyPillow products were rejected by an array of retailers in an apparent response to Lindell’s vehement insistence that Donald Trump, and not Joe Biden, won the 2020 presidential race and in light of the January 6, 2021 protest at the U.S. Capitol.

Despite his hardship, though, Lindell told Howse, “I’m never going to stop trying to secure elections for this country, ever.”

To the journalists with whom he spoke, Lindell reportedly confirmed the attorneys’ non-payment claim while praising them for being “brave and courageous” in taking on Smartmatic, Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., and former Dominion executive Eric Coomer’s litigation.

The media seized upon Lindell’s admission of financial straits, with The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which Lindell said published its article without his input, writing, “Mike Lindell can’t back down now.”

The plaintiffs in the three lawsuits claim Lindell sullied their respective reputations when he asserted the voting-machine companies “rigged” the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Approximately two weeks ago, Lindell told Steve Bannon on “War Room” that “five IRS audits” have been launched against MyPillow scrutinizing his arrangement with work-at-home employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amidst that news, Lindell heavily promoted the company’s product line, which he said has undergone recent improvements. “We’re in the biggest fight ever,” he said, which requires “quality” sleep.

Lindell is a supporter of “War Room,” having offered a promotional code for his products through Bannon’s website. According to Newsweek, he was a major source of funding for 45th President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to prove that widespread 2020 election fraud denied him a second term.

The Post & Email has not independently confirmed Newsweek‘s claim. The same article, published October 14, claims Lindell has been a longtime “adviser” to Trump and sports the headline that Lindell would soon host a “telethon” to raise funds for a new legal team. Later, however, the article contradicts itself with, “Lindell has not directly confirmed whether he will be holding a telethon to raise funds for a new legal team, but he did make a plea for donations on Wednesday after saying he was running out of money.”

The Players: Fanning, Jones, Howse, Montgomery

For more than two years, The Post & Email has reported on Lindell’s development of relationships with The American Report‘s Mary Fanning and Alan Jones; Worldview Weekend TV‘s Brannon Howse, who Lindell later hired to create his new website, Frankspeech; and former government subcontractor and “computer scientist” Dennis Montgomery.

As Lindell, Howse and Fanning have told the story, on January 9, 2021, Howse introduced Fanning to Lindell, who then introduced Montgomery to the businessman. Montgomery reportedly described to Lindell his alleged findings from the 2020 election showing significant interference from China, which allegedly came in the form of a “cyberwarfare attack” to alter votes on a mass scale. The evidence was allegedly manifested by “PCAPS,” or electronic data “packet captures,” as reported January 3 by Fanning and Jones.

Conversely, on October 31, 2020, Fanning and Jones reported that, according to Montgomery, a government supercomputer, “The Hammer,” and software program, “Scorecard,” both allegedly designed by Montgomery, were turned on the election by nefarious U.S. government operatives to alter the vote count in Biden’s favor.

Since their first article on Montgomery published March 17, 2017, Fanning and Jones, themselves defendants in a defamation lawsuit filed by The Gateway Pundit and Yaacov Apelbaum of XRVision, in scores of articles have advanced various of Montgomery’s claims, many of which date back decades or appear to originate with current news events.

Their most recent article categorized as “The Hammer” is dated February 10, 2023.

Lindell Buys Montgomery’s Claims

Following his January 9, 2021 conversation with Montgomery, Lindell immersed himself in the “cyberwarfare” narrative by taking it, unverified, to the White House in the last days of the Trump administration in an apparent effort to enlighten the president and his legal team, a stated goal of Fanning’s.

Later, Lindell would establish a new website for Montgomery, who has long claimed he is a government “whistleblower” in the “cybersecurity” realm.

Lindell enthusiastically promoted Montgomery’s claim in his “Absolute Proof” video series, of which Fanning, Howse and Jones were designated producers. Released between February and April 2021, the initial installment includes a 30+-minute audio presentation by Fanning featuring Montgomery’s election claims, presented as multiple columns of data allegedly showing locations, times, and other data associated with the alleged breaches.

Lindell went on to expend millions hosting his August 2021 “Cyber Symposium” at which he promised to reveal Montgomery’s election data; “The Moment of Truth Summit” in August 2022; and yet a third event this past August, the “Election Crime Bureau Summit.”

The “PCAPS” Montgomery collected in real time, Lindell said prior to the Symposium, would fully inform the public of the “fraud” behind the 2020 election. Scheduled to be released the third and final night of the conference, on the evening of the second day Lindell announced he could not release the data due to a “poison pill” having been inserted into it.

At “The Moment of Truth Summit” in August 2022, Lindell began to claim, as Montgomery has for nearly two decades, that the release of Montgomery’s information would require the lifting of a protective order granted to the U.S. government in 2007 over certain aspects of Montgomery’s contractual work for the Defense Department in the early 2000s.

A co-founder of eTreppid Technologies LLC, a now-defunct Nevada-based company specializing in computerized pattern recognition and data compression, in 2006 Montgomery filed a lawsuit against his former business partner, Warren Trepp, and eTreppid, claiming copyright infringement.

As the case progressed, the U.S. government intervened to request a protective order, citing “national security” interests, over certain information of which eTreppid employees had knowledge given the company’s contractual relationship with the Defense Department. Granted in August 2007, the protective order enjoined those individuals from revealing information related to “any intelligence agency.”

Despite warnings regarding Montgomery’s history of unfulfilled data production and proof of authenticity, Lindell continued to build suspense regarding the eventual release of the PCAPS as he moved to intervene in the long-settled case. At the time Montgomery submitted his own filings, contending he holds information gleaned from technology he developed while at eTreppid which the order precludes him from divulging.

The government’s responsive briefs urged the court to maintain the protective order while insisting it does not pertain to any technology or information involving elections or voting.

In early August this year, U.S. District Court Judge Miranda Du ruled in the government’s favor, leaving the protective order in place and dismissing Lindell and Montgomery’s requests.

In a surprising development, text messages Lindell exchanged with Fanning during the Cyber Symposium appear to indicate he was aware Montgomery had provided no authentic “PCAPS.” At the same time, he admitted to having purchased Montgomery a luxury home and given him $1.1 million in cash, purportedly for the data Montgomery sold to a company of Lindell’s.

Last year a reliable source informed The Post & Email that Fanning and Lindell are no longer business associates, although Fanning made an audio appearance with Lindell and Howse following the “Moment of Truth Summit” to tout the alleged “bombshell information released about government whistleblower Dennis Montgomery at Moment Of Truth Summit” as well as the “considerable progress” they claimed to have made since “January 9, (2021).”

Has Montgomery Proved Himself?

In 2009, Aram Roston, then of Playboy, released a lengthy exposé dubbing Montgomery “The Man Who Conned the Pentagon,” a moniker which remains legally unchallenged.

Beginning in 2015 with the civil trial of then-Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, The Post & Email has detailed numerous claims Montgomery has made but failed to substantiate.

Having served as a confidential informant to the MCSO in 2014, Montgomery failed to provide evidence of his claims of illegal government breaches of county residents’ personal data and widespread surveillance allegedly facilitated by “The Hammer” as confirmed in a report to Arpaio from two former NSA officials with subject-matter knowledge.

Moreover, while reportedly claiming to Fanning and Jones he constructed the supercomputer, Montgomery reportedly told MCSO investigator Mike Zullo the computer was “already” on the premises when he performed in-person contractual work for the Defense Department.

And Fanning?

In July 2021, The Post & Email asked the question, “Is Mary Fanning a Real Operative?” referring to reports from a reliable source claiming she is a former CIA employee. Fanning denies that assertion but often accuses others, including this writer, of working for the CIA.

Although a frequent guest on various podcasts, Fanning never shows her face and will not confirm whether or not a photo allegedly depicting her is authentic.

What prompted her monolithic promotion of Montgomery’s claims and desire to connect with Lindell? Why did she speak with authority about data which has not proved authentic after scrutiny from experts? Through her association with Lindell, what did she achieve?

Updated October 22, 2023