Trump Campaign Cuts Ties With Lawyer Sidney Powell Who Promoted Wild Election Fraud Conspiracy Theories
Topline
The Trump campaign released a statement on Sunday seeking to distance itself from lawyer Sidney Powell, who has spun outlandish tales of election fraud to news organizations, three days after the attorney was front and center at a press conference with Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, and Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign legal adviser.
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Key Facts
Powell “is not a member of the Trump Legal Team,” Giuliani said in a statement sent out by the Trump campaign Sunday, adding she is “also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”
In fact, both President Trump and Ellis have referred to Powell as part of the team:
On Saturday, the lawyer went on the conservative cable channel Newsmax and promoted wild conspiracy theories about the election, claiming, without evidence, Trump lost Georgia because Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.)—a fierce Trump ally—was bribed by an election systems company.
Powell, taking the conspiracy theory a step further, also claimed on Newsmax Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) would have outlasted Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in the general election had Kemp not rigged the election machines (Loeffler is set to square off against Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock in a January 5th runoff.)
Key Background
Though it’s likely Powell’s penchant for conspiracy theories led the Trump campaign to cut ties, the lawyer originally caught the attention of the president due to her willingness to tout baseless claims about election rigging by voting machine manufacturers. Powell also represented Trump’s ex-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn in 2019, and first rose to prominence by criticizing former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Surprising Fact
Powell is a longtime promoter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, frequently sharing QAnon slogans on her social media, according to Business Insider.
Further Reading
Who Is Sidney Powell? Meet Trump’s New Top Conspiracy Theorist. (Forbes)
*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Forbes can be found here ***
