MyPillow CEO said he was recently 'attacked' and implied that Antifa may have played a role. It was actually a fan who poked him while taking a selfie.

• MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said he was physically assaulted at his cyber symposium.
• The "assailant" turned out to be a fan who poked Lindell while taking a selfie, AP first reported.
• Lindell said the attack left him "doubled over" in pain. A witness said this is not true.

Mike Lindell, MyPillow's CEO, told attendees at his 72-hour cyber symposium last week that he was attacked by an unknown assailant. On the third day of the event, Lindell said he was worried that Antifa - an umbrella term for militant anti-fascist groups - had somehow infiltrated the symposium.

"Last night when I got to the hotel, I was attacked," he said onstage. "I'm OK. It hurts a little bit." He added, "I just want everyone to know all the evil that's out there."

But the alleged assailant turned out to be a fan of Lindell who wanted a picture with the MyPillow CEO. Lindell said that while the two took a selfie together, the man poked him in the ribs.

"He put his arm around and stuck his finger - it was so much pressure, I just knew if I did anything something more was coming," Lindell said later on a conservative talk show. "He jammed it in where it was just piercing pain."

Read more: I asked MyPillow whether it sells customer data to political committees. Mike Lindell called back - and things got interesting.

Jeff Buongiorno, a conference attendee and pro-Trump congressional candidate in Florida, witnessed the incident and said there was no attack, calling it a "nothing burger." He added that he saw Lindell walk to the elevator after the photo was taken, and that he did not appear to be in any pain.

"The elevators are glass, and witnesses saw Lindell go up to the sixth floor," Buongiorno tweeted.

Lindell told the Associated Press that the poke caused him to "double over" in pain and that he's personally investigating how the fan "could have shoved an object between his ribs." Salon reporter Zachary Petrizzo said witnesses told him the yellow object in question was likely a tangerine.

The AP reported that Lindell has filed a report of an assault with the Sioux Falls Police Department, and that he said it was "one of the worst attacks" he'd experienced.

"The young guy in the blue shirt would be accused or buried," Buongiorno wrote in response to Lindell's claims. "I just can't let that happen."

Lindell is a leading promoter of baseless voter-fraud conspiracy theories that say China helped Joe Biden to "steal" the 2020 presidential election from President Donald Trump. Lindell did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.