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Photos shared on social media show a significant number of empty seats at Mike Lindell's Election Crime Bureau Summit, which is currently taking place in Springfield, Missouri.

Lindell, a prominent supporter of the discredited conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, claimed he would use the summit to reveal a "brilliant and divinely inspired" plan to ensure election integrity.

The event is being held on August 16-17, just days after Trump was indicted over his alleged involvement in a plot to strip Joe Biden of his 2020 election victory in Georgia. Trump is facing 13 charges, which his legal team has dismissed as "shocking and absurd," while 18 of his supporters have also been indicted, including his ex-lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

A photograph taken at Lindell's conference by "Christian conservative" commentator Derrick Evans, showing a sizable number of empty seats with entire rows only partially occupied, was shared on his account on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Evans wrote: "Great crowd for the Lindell Event in Missouri. This is one of two rooms with people also in the lobby area where more media is set up."

However not everyone was so impressed, with one X user replying: "Was everyone on a f****** latrine break? There isn't 200 people there."

Evans responded by noting: "It's an invite only event," prompting a second Twitter user to comment: "He [Lindell] rented a 2,000 seat arena and invited 200 people. Is that what you're saying?"

Meidas Touch, a liberal publication hostile to Trump, published an article claiming "barely anyone shows up" for Lindell's event. The image includes a photograph taken from Instagram showing a large number of mostly empty rows, with a small audience clumped at the front, though it doesn't appear anyone was speaking at the time.

Newsweek has contacted Mike Lindell by email, requesting details of the attendance at his conference and seeking comment.

Lindell, who made his fortune by founding pillow manufacturing company MyPillow, told the summit its focus wouldn't be on presenting new evidence of electoral fraud.

He commented: "This historical election summit is so important that it's being broadcast around the world in 85 languages on FrankSpeech.com.

"This election summit is not going to be about more evidence. We have enough evidence. Evidence has been the easy part. This summit is all about hope and the plan to secure our elections immediately."

The event got off to an awkward start, with a video of Jimmy Kimmel being played to the audience in an apparent accident, sparking Lindell to shout: "No, no, no. That's the wrong one!"

Trump is continuing to insist the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him using electoral fraud, though this claim has been repeatedly dismissed in court and by independent election experts. Along with his Georgia indictment, Trump is also being charged over claims he broke the law trying to overturn the 2020 poll on a national level, to which he has pled not guilty on all counts.

Lindell recently admitted MyPillow had "lost $100 million" after major retailers stopped stocking its products in response to his election fraud claims. In July, the company auctioned over 800 items online, with some pieces of industrial equipment being sold for less than $10.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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