Mike Lindell ally claims his attack story is a ‘nothing burger’: I saw him go up in the elevator

Lindell said onstage that he was ‘attacked,’ then later told a media outlet he was ‘aggressively poked’ by a fan

A GOP candidate for Congress who says he witnessed the incident described by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell as an attack at his “cyber symposium” says the incident is more of a “nothing burger”.

Jeffrey Buongiorno, a Republican running for office in Florida and a supporter of former President Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, wrote in a series of tweets that Mr Lindell appeared fine as he rode the elevator up to his room following the encounter with a man who he claimed “aggressively poked” him.

The incident took place over Mr Lindell’s multi-day event last week in South Dakota, where he vowed to present evidence to the media showing that Mr Trump had indeed been the rightful victor of the 2020 election. That proof never came, and when asked about it, the CEO responded that his team had data that it did not want reporters to fact-check.

“I took both pictures at the time Lindell claimed he was attacked,” wrote Mr Buongiorno, who attached a picture of Mr Lindell smiling next to a man in a suit while the alleged culprit smiles in the background, apparently awaiting his own selfie.

“It pains me to do this but I support law enforcement and in my opinion, this is a nothing burger. The elevators are glass, and witnesses saw Lindell go up to the 6th floor,” Mr Buongiorno added.

I can't it any longer. I took both pictures at the time Lindell claimed he was attacked. Detective Joffer of Sioux Falls PD can verify. pic.twitter.com/SvTRPPBerK

— Jeffrey Buongiorno for US Congress (@JBforFL) August 17, 2021

“There was no attack,” he told the Associated Press.

At no point did Mr Lindell appear to be physically attacked by the man, according to Mr Buongiorno’s account. The Independent has reached out to Mr Lindell for his take on the events. The MyPillow CEO did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Mr Lindell initially described the incident as him being “attacked...physically” by the unidentified man, and later said he was “aggressively poked” by the man who wanted his picture taken.

“It happened pretty fast, but the guy knew what he was doing,” Mr Lindell said, while calling it “one of the worst attacks on me I’ve ever had”.

Were he to win his long-shot bid to represent Florida’s 21st Congressional District, Mr Buongiorno would be one of several House Republicans who have continued to spread conspiracies about the 2020 election and their party’s defeat months after Mr Biden took office.

Despite their repeated claims, top administration officials at the Justice Department and other areas of the federal government have stated repeatedly throughout both the Biden administration and end of the Trump administration that no widespread fraud had been found affecting the 2020 election.