Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow and a leading election-conspiracy ally of former President Donald Trump, has given financial support to a new nationwide organization devoted to “election integrity,” according to Shawn Smith, a prominent Colorado Springs-based activist and apparent leader of the organization.
Smith announced the launch of the organization, Cause of America, during an appearance Monday on “Bannon’s War Room,” hosted by former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon and carried on Lindell’s media platform frankspeech.com.
“Cause of America — it’s a new nonprofit that’s started out,” Smith told Bannon. “Mike Lindell is kind of the angel investor, and the purpose of Cause of America is to enable the grassroots organizations across the country who are doing election integrity.”
Smith works with Colorado-based U.S. Election Integrity Plan, an activist group that was established after the 2020 election and has promoted unsubstantiated claims about the election in Colorado. He is an ally of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, whose alleged involvement in a security breach of election equipment in her own office was the basis of a court ruling that barred her from overseeing this month’s election in Mesa County and who is a subject of a related criminal investigation. In August, Smith appeared in South Dakota with Peters at the Lindell-hosted “Cyber Symposium,” which sought to present proof of debunked election-fraud claims. The election-fraud claims that Smith often advances are mirrored in a lawsuit filed last week against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold by Republican state Rep. Ron Hanks.
Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or compromised have been debunked by experts, courts and election officials from both parties.
Leaders of USEIP, such as Smith and Ashe Epp, have repeatedly said the group does not raise money. “We don’t fundraise, and we don’t accept donations,” co-founder Epp said during a presentation in May. But during his interview with Bannon, Smith, who implied that USEIP is affiliated with Cause of America, highlighted advantages of financial support.
“We” — USEIP — “haven’t charged anybody for anything, it’s all been out of pocket, but there have been limits on that, because everyone are volunteers and we have limited resources and the same people who are investigating election machines are trying to figure out how to code websites at night and do an open records act request, so Cause of America is standing up as an organization to enable grassroots and help coordinate the election integrity activity of citizens across the country,” Smith said.
The Cause of America website, which Smith said launched Monday, features a “Want to Donate?” prompt. However, the feature says the organization “is not currently taking direct donations” and instead leads visitors to donate to another outfit that is “geared toward fixing 2020” and is not a charitable organization.
The site includes a page that offers “a timeline of election related activities and news” for several states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Its “Library” includes documents that largely concern Colorado voting and the issues on which Smith has previously focused. The Hanks lawsuit is prominently featured in the site’s “News” section.
Newsline did not immediately receive a response to a request for comment sent through Cause of America’s online press inquiry form.
This article was originally published in Colorado Newsline.
