Former Trump attorney who vowed to ‘release the Kraken’ facing sanction hearing in Detroit
Attorneys who made false claims in court filings after the 2020 general election to reverse election results to favor former President Donald Trump have been summoned to appear in Detroit for a sanctions hearing.
Federal judge Linda Parker ordered Sidney Powell and other attorneys who had represented Trump in an election results dispute last year to appear in court at 2 p.m. July 6.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has asked the court to sanction Powell, a Texas lawyer, along with Michigan attorneys Greg Rohl, Scott Hagerstrom and Stefanie Junttila, for pursuing a case that sought to overturn state election results based on lies.
The 75-page case, King v. Whitmer, filed by a group of Michigan Republicans, asked a judge to determine Trump — not now-President Joe Biden — won Michigan, based on discredited claims.
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The lawsuit is also known as the Kraken case because Powell vowed last November she would “release the Kraken” — repeating a famous line from the movie remake “Clash of the Titans” — to prove widespread voter fraud.
Certified results, however, showed Trump lost Michigan to Biden, a Democrat.
In April, Nessel, a Democrat, accused Powell and other lawyers of making statements “they knew were misleading” to advance conspiracy theories to “dismantle our system of democracy.”
Nessel said Powell later made “multiple stunning admissions regarding her own statements, even going so far as to say, ‘no reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact.’ “
Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, which makes voting machines, brought a $1.3 billion lawsuit against Powell for falsely claiming that the company switched millions of ballots from Trump to Biden.
Powell has argued her remarks are protected by constitutional free speech.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
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