Who Is Sidney Powell? Meet Trump’s New Top Conspiracy Theorist.
Topline
As President Donald Trump tries to sue his way to a second term, lawyer Sidney Powell has satiated his appetite for implausible conspiracy theories and seemingly baseless vote-rigging allegations, vaulting the former prosecutor and frequent Trump defender from the Fox News pundit circuit to the outgoing president’s inner circle.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Key Facts
Powell joined Rudy Giuliani’s legal team to help overturn Trump’s electoral losses, and has reportedly earned Trump’s attention for her willingness to openly endorse the fact-free idea that voting machine manufacturers and election software companies rigged the election in President-elect Joe Biden’s favor.
The former prosecutor landed in Trump’s orbit after casting herself as a chronicler of corruption at the Justice Department, writing missives about how Robert Mueller’s probe into Trump’s relationship with Russia was actually a shadowy effort to undermine him.
Powell’s outspokenness drew the attention of Trump’s ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who hired Powell as his lawyer in 2019, more than a year after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian government.
Key Background
A North Carolina native, Powell worked as a federal prosecutor specializing in appeals in Texas and Virginia during the 1970s and 1980s, and she later founded her own appellate law firm in Dallas. During her time as a private-sector attorney, she told Politico, she grew wary of overreach by prosecutors in some of her cases. She wrote a 2014 book about misconduct and ethical breaches by overzealous prosecutors at the Department of Justice, a topic that picked up steam after Trump was inaugurated and many of his backers felt he was hamstrung by federal investigations into foreign election interference.
Tangent
At a surreal press conference on Thursday, Powell falsely insisted Trump won the 2020 popular vote in “a landslide” but was cheated by an “algorithm” designed by Dominion Voting Systems. She described a secretive vote-flipping operation devised by a veritable who’s who of conspiracy theory tropes: George Soros, the Clinton Foundation, Antifa, “communistic” actors in Venezuela (including late ex-president Hugo Chávez), Cuba, China and thousands of election officials from both parties. Dominion has dismissed the idea they’re controlled by those entities. When asked for proof, Trump’s team has responded by either promising evidence in the future, pointing to “spikes” in Election Night tallies that reflect the normal pace of vote-counting, or citing eyewitness accounts that were often exaggerated. Powell and Trump’s campaign did not respond to questions from Forbes.
Chief Critic
“That press conference was the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history,” said Chris Krebs, the former director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who was fired by Trump on Tuesday after calling “The November 3rd election … the most secure in American history.”
Surprising Fact
Some of Trump’s fervent allies have sought to distance themselves from Powell. Fox News host Tucker Carlson — who has used his show to promote unsubstantiated voter fraud claims — told his audience Thursday that Powell had refused to offer him any evidence to back up her theories. Plus, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told a talk radio host she thought Powell’s baseless claims about corruption were offensive.
What To Watch For
Powell has openly suggested Republican-controlled state legislatures should usurp the will of their voters and appoint pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College. Most experts believe this plan — which some see as an irreversible threat to democracy — is neither legally nor politically feasible, and GOP leaders in several states have categorically ruled out the idea. Still, Trump has privately toyed with the idea, even inviting Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders to the White House Friday, the New York Times reported.
Further Reading
The #MAGA Lawyer Behind Michael Flynn’s Scorched-Earth Legal Strategy (Politico)
