A California restaurant owner said she received threats after posting a picture of staff with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell without knowing his role in politics

• A California restaurant was threatened after posting a picture online of staff with Mike Lindell, per SFGATE.
• The staff only knew him as the boss of MyPillow, not for his role in politics, the owner told SFGATE.

A California restaurant received threats after posting a picture online of staff with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell without knowing about his controversial background, SFGATE reported on Wednesday.

Michelle Hill, owner of Tres Chiles Picosos, a Mexican restaurant in Eureka, told SFGATE she let a manager on October 6 post a picture on Facebook of two workers standing beside Lindell — who has made headlines for parroting former President Donald Trump's false claims about the 2020 US presidential election being rigged against him.

The restaurant thanked Lindell in the picture's caption for his visit and said it hoped he would come again soon.

Since posting the picture, the restaurant has received several threatening calls, Hill told SFGATE. In posts reviewed by Insider, some Facebook users have commented saying they plan to boycott the restaurant.

"I would never associate myself or my business with that man," one user commented on the Facebook post. "This is exactly how you destroy your business," another person said in reply to the picture. "Never eating there again," one user said.

Lindell is facing a $1.3 billion lawsuit from voting tech company Dominion, which sued him and MyPillow in February last year, alleging that he defamed Dominion by spreading false conspiracy theories about the company's role in the 2020 election.

In response to negative comments, the restaurant posted a statement on its Facebook page, saying: "It's very unfortunate a positive post we made on our social media page that was intended to thank a tourist for supporting a local establishment in Humboldt County went so political. This was not a political post."

"Just because you do not like someone due to their political affiliation, race or religion, does not give you the right to pass judgement or boycott a business. This particular gentleman and his family were so very nice and respectful to our Hispanic staff," it added.

Hill told SFGATE that she and her colleagues were unaware of Lindell's stance in politics. She added that her team only knew him in relation to MyPillow because they purchase his pillows and other homeware items.

"This was the first person that had come into the restaurant that they had seen on TV," Hill told SFGATE. "They probably would've taken a photo with Biden, or Trump, or Martha Stewart, or George Clooney if they had come in," adding that it had nothing to do with politics.

Hill told SFGATE she looked up Lindell online after Tres Chiles Picosos started getting criticized for the post. She said in the interview that she still would have posted the photo if she'd known about Lindell's role in politics. Hill told SFGATE she wasn't planning on removing the picture from Facebook and won't be "bullied" about it.

Tres Chiles Picosos didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.