So I think I'm starting to get a theory of what happened. Lindell was duped by some guy that came forward to him with "proof" of election interference. However Lindell had a problem, he had no ability to personally verify the files, and everyone thought he was too much of a looney to bother taking his claims and files seriously. So he came up with a solution, namely to pay people to take his claims seriously. By making it into a contest, he wouldn't even have to pay up, since the files would undoubtedly (in his mind) turn out to be real.

Could this be it?