My Pillow chief executive and conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell berated a reporter as a “traitor” when asked about a memo he held when leaving then-president Donald Trump’s White House that suggested the president implement martial law.

       CBS News reporter Robert Costa spoke to Mr Lindell at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday and asked him about a memo that Mr Lindell was seen carrying on 15 January 2021 that had the words “martial law.”

       “Who gave me the papers? That’s none of your business. A bunch of lawyers did,” he said in response to Mr Costa’s question. “I never read them.”

       In turn, Mr Lindell said that he went to the White House with evidence of his conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems and China attacked the United States and denied Mr Trump a victory. When Mr Costa asked who gave him the memo and whether he discussed martial law with Mr Trump, he said, “no.”

       “You guys are the worst journalists,” he said before saying “Robert Costa is a traitor to the United States of America” and leading a chant of “traitor” at the conference.

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       Mr Lindell also denounced Fox News for not mentioning Dominion. Fox and Dominion are currently embroiled in a defamation lawsuit after a judge denied Fox News’s request to end the suit. Dominion Voting Systems filed the $1.6bn (￡1.2bn) defamation lawsuit last year.

       “You’re disgusting,” he said. “Are you a communist?”