Editor’s note • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.
Rep. Phil Lyman will be a featured speaker at a Colorado event focusing on “the big lie” that the 2020 election was marred by rampant fraud.
Lyman is speaking at the “Election vs. Selection” event in Grand Junction. He’ll be joined by several other prominent figures who have embraced election fraud conspiracy theories, including My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell.
“I’ll be focusing on the list of reasons why I think Utah’s elections are vulnerable to manipulation and fraud,” Lyman explained Wednesday.
Lyman points to the state’s use of universal mail-in balloting as an avenue for fraud. During the 2020 session, Lyman unsuccessfully sponsored legislation to do away with most mail-in voting in Utah.
“My whole motivation is the truth. I’m pretty good at seeing through BS on both sides of any question,” Lyman said.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, talks with activists pushing for a forensic audit of the 2020 election in Utah, rally at the Capitol on Oct. 20, 2021.
Last summer, Lyman attended Lindell’s election fraud cyber symposium along with former Utah Rep. Steve Christiansen.
Friday’s event is organized by Tina Peters, the clerk and recorder in Mesa County, Colorado, who has been barred from overseeing elections because she’s facing multiple felony charges for allegedly tampering with voting equipment. Peters, a candidate for secretary of state in Colorado, has alleged without proof that voting machines in her county were rigged against Republican candidates.
Lindell has been a near-tireless promoter of the baseless theory that Donald Trump’s loss in 2020 resulted from voting machine manipulation.
“All I do is spend tens of millions of dollars trying to help our country. But you don’t care about the truth,” Lindell said during a phone conversation on Wednesday. “The evidence is there. You can’t deny it.”
Lindell has been a vocal champion of Peters. During an April visit to Colorado, he claimed he had spent $800,000 on her legal defense. Lindell and Peters were both speakers at Donald Trump’s recent campaign rally in Casper, Wyoming.
Lindell is currently funding a documentary about Peters and her debunked claims from former journalist-turned right-wing provocateur Lara Logan.
“People want the truth. People are longing for the truth. But you can’t handle the truth. You guys (the media) are disgusting. Everyone in this country knows this election was stolen, and we don’t want this stuff to happen again. We want these machines gone,” Lindell said.
He plans to release Logan’s documentary, titled “Selection Code,” for free on his website in August.
Peters is also scheduled to speak at Friday’s event.
Joining Lyman and Lindell on Friday are other fringe far-right personalities.
Joe Oltmann, the host of the Conservative Daily podcast, is the event’s master of ceremonies. He has called for the mass execution of political figures and has ties to militia groups.
Another speaker, data analyst Jeff O’Donnell, authored a debunked report that Peters and her supporters claim is evidence of election machine hacking. O’Donnell, known online as “the Lone Raccoon,” spoke at a pair of election fraud conspiracy events in South Jordan and St. George in March.
Another speaker from the Utah election conspiracy events, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gabelman, is also on Friday’s schedule.
Utahns Jenn Orten and Sophie Anderson, known online as “Two Red Pills,” are also scheduled to speak. The two are currently suing several Utah counties to obtain electronic voting data they say contains evidence of rampant fraud in Utah’s elections. Anderson, Orten, Lyman and Peters all spoke at a QAnon-driven conference in Salt Lake City last year.
Other speakers at Friday’s event include Mark Finchem, a candidate for Secretary of State in Arizona who is a member of the Oath Keepers Militia.
