Former Overstock CEO suggests he collaborated with QAnon influencer known for trying to elect Big Lie election administration candidates

Written by Alex Kaplan

Published

Patrick Byrne, former Overstock CEO and a key player in the election denial movement, suggested in an online stream that he has collaborated with a QAnon influencer known online as Juan O. Savin.

Byrne, a prominent player pushing false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, was among those who met with then-President Donald Trump on December 18, 2020, to advocate for him to take measures to stay in office and prove supposed voter fraud. Byrne has since continued his election denial activities, including bankrolling the supposed “audit” of votes cast in Maricopa County, Arizona, in the aftermath of the 2020 election. He is also heavily connected to followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, saying that he has relied on “digital soldiers” for his claims and that he sees them as his allies.

Savin, whose real name is Wayne Willott, is a QAnon influencer who has warned of “civil war” if people “move past” false claims of voter fraud in 2020. He is also part of a coalition to recruit and elect secretary of state candidates around the country who have pushed false voter fraud claims in order to control election administration. 

Byrne has previously admitted that he has met with Savin, and Savin has said Byrne has “done stuff with me personally to look at issues going back to the November 3, 2020, situation.” In a July 24 stream, Byrne said that he was “very friendly” with Savin and added, “I spent some good times with [Savin], good, in the lobby of the Trump Hotel. We got to know each other. And then we sat a couple of times in my room.” Byrne suggested that Savin was “instrumental in getting” information to him about supposed voter fraud in Nevada in 2020 and in “getting that early Nevada activity started” regarding efforts to overturn the election results in the state, and he said that Savin was “very helpful.” Byrne has previously said he has donated to the secretary of state candidates coalition and has allegedly met with members of the coalition.

Former Overstock CEO suggests he collaborated with QAnon influencer known for trying to elect Big Lie election administration candidates

juan o savin

From a July 24, 2022, online stream

CALLER: I am interested, and I am a huge fan of Juan O. Savin. And I think you’ve had some run-ins with him a time or two.

PATRICK BYRNE: Not run-ins, we’re very friendly.

CALLER: Yeah, yeah. No, no, no, I didn’t — I didn’t mean that. And I was — I was really just — just trying to get a gauge of — and I know you can’t speak on everything, I'm sure, but just a simple terms of skill, like one to 10, how much stock you put into good ol’ Juan?

…

BYRNE: You can’t really — you got to take — I don’t think anyone in this movement is — well, the only completely pure guy that I know who’s exactly what he says he is and such is Mike Flynn. Juan O. Savin is a very interesting guy. I spent some good times with him, good, in the lobby of the Trump Hotel. We got to know each other. And then we sat a couple of times in my room. We got to know him. I don't think he’s a — making it all up. He knows a lot of stuff. He’s been behind the curtain. He’s been behind the curtain. I think his claim is that it [he] was a DEA agent and — or something. He’s a very smooth character and he is smooth in a way that I associate with people from his — the federal — his claimed federal background. He’s very smooth, like them. He knows a lot. Now there are some times he’s been wrong. So after January 6 or 7, he was saying, “Don’t worry, Trump is really secretly in charge. He’s going to be back in May.” And then it was, “He’s going to be back in June.” I told him I wish that he wouldn’t say that, that none of that’s true. None of that’s true. He — none of that was true. 

However, he’s a — he’s a sophisticated guy and I think he’s right about a lot. And he was very early. There were in the — in there — you’ll notice that if someone goes back over my election stuff since November 3, 2020, I always kind of left off Nevada. It was the five obvious states and then Nevada. And that — that’s because what we were hearing from Nevada didn’t quite fit. Things were done a little bit differently in Nevada. Some of the tricks were the same, some were different. Anyway, Juan Savin or Juan O. Savin or whatever, he was instrumental in getting that — in getting that early Nevada activity started. And so I like him very much. I don’t believe he’s correct when he says that Trump is still secretly in charge and just wait. I don’t know if he’s saying that stuff anymore. 

…

So that’s what my thoughts are of him. He’s — I like him when I see him. I saw him again recently. He’s very smart, he’s very helpful. And I guess I take him as about being about 80 or 90% of what he take of what he’s saying feels right to me. Sometimes he’s off at his own place on things. I don’t know what to make of it. So that’s — but yeah, I — he’s sophisticated in his — there’s those shows he used to do, where it would be like him driving for three or four hours with just music and you would see the desert rolling by. 

… 

Well, he’s a sophisticated guy, and I would go ahead and keep listening to him. I would not take it all as gospel, but I would take some of his more outlandish stuff. But his read on things is very, very good. Sometimes I think he’s exaggerating or something. He was not correct about the “Trump is still secretly in charge” stuff, but he's a good guy to listen to and he has a lot of intelligent things to explain.