And now, for this week's BtV newsletter... My name's Greg Walters, and these days I cover the intersection between politics and the law. I'm taking over this installment while Todd's traveling. So here we go:
Drive-thru justice
The Jan. 6 criminal investigations got a hell of a lot more real this week.
Suddenly it seems like the feds are everywhere. Some 40 subpoenas were blasted out at top MAGA-world figures by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., which is reportedly seeking answers on practically every aspect of the insurrection.
The feds want to know about the so-called fake electors scheme, sure. But they're also poking around to learn more about the planning of former President Donald Trump's rally on the Ellipse, and even fundraising for Trump's Save America political action committee.
In other words, the first whiff of autumn is in the air—and so is that faint, burnt-leaf smell of accountability.
The Department of Justice's upshift into a higher gear comes after critics spent months lambasting Attorney General Merrick Garland for moving too slowly. That chatter now seems likely to subside.
Federal agents seized the cellphones of top Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and campaign strategist Mike Roman. Subpoenas were served on former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and Trump's former social media director Dan Scavino.
Mike Lindell, aka "the pillow guy," did not escape the dragnet. FBI agents pounced on the MyPillow CEO and prominent election conspiracy theorist in the drive-thru lane of a Minnesota Hardee's and ordered him to turn over his phone. (Imagine, for a moment, that a genie let you travel back in time to warn your past self about our discordant future—but you could only transmit that one, bizarre sentence.)
Hardee's capitalized on its trending moment with a pillow pun on Twitter: "Now that you know we exist... you should really try our pillowy biscuits."
Lindell—never one to sit quietly, even under legal scrutiny—also made much of the incident, discussing every detail in frenetic media appearances and even posting his warrant on social media.
Judging from the document, Lindell's run-in with the feds appears linked to an investigation that's formally separate from the big Jan. 6 subpoena blast. Instead, it's tied to the widening investigation of a breach of election voting systems in Colorado and the prosecution of former Colorado election official and regular BtV cast member Tina Peters.
Peters, you might recall, has been charged with state-level crimes and pleaded not guilty. She is specifically named in the seizure warrant for Lindell's phone, which was approved by a federal grand jury in Colorado and posted online by Lindell.
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