MyPillow CEO Michael Lindell brought notes with him to a meeting in the West Wing Friday that zoomed-in photographs appear to show contained the phrases “martial law,” “Insurrection Act” and “foreign interference in the election.”
The paper also included a line reading “move Kash Patel to CIA Acting,” a seeming suggestion for President Donald Trump to fire CIA Director Gina Haspel and move Patel, a Trump loyalist recently installed at the Pentagon amid a purge of senior civilian officials, to fill the role.
It also included the names of Sidney Powell, Bill Olsen and Kurt Olsen, though the beginning of the sentence involving them is cut off by a fold in the paper.
@MyPillowUSA CEO Michael Lindell shows off his notes before going into the West Wing at the White House on Friday, Jan 15, 2021 in Washington, DC. pic.twitter.com/AY6AyJNSyE
— Jabin Botsford (@jabinbotsford) January 15, 2021
Powell, a lawyer who hovered around the fringes of the Trump campaign’s attempt to overturn the election after being formally axed from the team, has become a vociferous purveyor of conspiracy theories and a hero to adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory. It’s unclear which Olsens Lindell was referring to; the attorney Kurt Olsen was among those representing the state of Texas in its unsuccessful effort to throw out several other states’ election results, according to multiple reports.
The document appeared to reference other aspects of QAnon as well. The conspiracy theory holds as a central premise that the President is waging a behind-the-scenes war against the “deep state.” In some tellings, the battle will culminate with mass arrests and executions of his political enemies.
Some in the QAnon community — including Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser and a client of Powell’s — have called for Trump to enforce martial law in his attempts to overturn the November election.
Another line, cut off by a fold in the paper, appears to read “Insurrection Act now,” referring to a law which allows the President to deploy federal troops in extraordinary circumstances. It’s a measure Powell in particular has amplified calls for on her Twitter feed, as the MAGA-verse brainstormed mechanisms Trump could use to nullify the election results and hold a new vote.
More broadly, Lindell’s invitation to the White House indicates that even a week after the President invited a crowd to the nation’s capital and then directed them to march on Congress — leading to a riot and breach of the building that resulted in five deaths and his second impeachment — Trump is unwilling to let go of conspiratorial fantasies.
Lindell was among the pro-Trump celebrities that spoke at the “Stop the Steal” event in D.C. last week, at a rally the night before Trump’s fateful speech. His company was listed as a “coalition partner” for the event.
“I can tell you, 100 percent Donald Trump is going to be your President for four more years,” Lindell said, before mentioning a recent discussion he’d had with Flynn that involved even more evidence of massive election fraud. “Donald Trump was picked for eight years by God, not four,” he added later.
