Trump discussed Sidney Powell as voter fraud special counsel: report – Business Insider

• President Donald Trump on Friday discussed naming attorney Sidney Powell as a special counsel investigating voter fraud, according to a report from The New York Times.
• According to The Times, most of his advisors didn’t support the plan, including Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney.
• Trump elevating Powell to such a role would be a stunning turnaround from just last month, when Giuliani and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis said that she was “practicing law on her own” after being purged from the campaign team.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump on Friday discussed naming attorney Sidney Powell as a special counsel investigating voter fraud, according to a report from The New York Times.

The Times report cited two people familiar with the talks, and it was not evident whether Trump would follow through with the plan.

According to The Times, most of his advisors didn’t support the plan, including Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney and the face of his campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.

While Giuliani joined the meeting by phone, Powell was at the White House, with the discussions being “raucous at times,” according to the report. Other administration officials popped in and out of meeting, with resistance to the proposed ideas coming from White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

Powell reportedly lashed out at other Trump advisors, calling them “quitters.”

The president “has been in contact with Ms. Powell in recent days, despite the fact that the campaign last month sought to distance itself from her as she aired wild and baseless claims about Dominion Voting Systems machines, which were used in some states, somehow being connected to a Venezuelan plot to control the election,” the Times reported.

Trump considering Powell for such a role would be a stunning turnaround from just last month when Giuliani and campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis said she was “practicing law on her own” after being purged from the campaign team.

Dominion officials, incensed by the allegations, have threatened to sue her for defamation if she fails to retract her allegations about the company. The company, which has long had contracts from a range of states controlled by Democrats and Republicans, said that Powell’s allegations against the company have damaged its business.

“Your reckless disinformation campaign is predicated on lies that have endangered Dominion’s business and the lives of its employees,” the company said in a letter obtained by Insider. “Dominion has never provided machines or any of its software or technology to Venezuela, nor has it ever participated in any elections to Venezuela. It did not receive $400 million from the Chinese in the weeks before the 2020 election. It has no ties to the Chinese government, the Venezuelan government, George Soros, Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster.”

During the White House meeting, there was also “a discussion about an executive order to take control of voting machines to examine them,” according to the Times report. 

Giuliani reportedly inquired about the Department of Homeland Security seizing control of voting machines but was told that the department could not take such an action.

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