As early as last week the Trump legal team appeared to include Michael Flynn attorney Sidney Powell. On Sunday the campaign released a statement distancing itself from Powell who has made bombshell claims about voter fraud that have yet to be substantiated.
According to Mediaite:
President Donald Trump’s lawyers put out a statement on Sunday evening distancing themselves from fellow attorney Sidney Powell after she pushed absurd conspiracy theories claiming widespread voter fraud. For a legal team who has called themselves an “elite strike force” but whose results are most charitably described as blundering, Powell’s recent commentary apparently went a step too far, sparking a very public split.
On Saturday night, Powell went after Trump ally Governor Brian Kemp (R-GA) in an appearance on Newsmax TV, claiming she has evidence of voting machine fraud in the state while arguing Kemp is complicit.
Then on Sunday evening, the campaign released a statement to distance themselves and the Trump campaign from Powell, and for the first time declaring that she was not actually part of the campaign’s official legal team.
“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in a personal capacity,” Jenna Ellis, Senior Legal Adviser to the Trump campaign, and Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, stated in the press release.
INBOX: Trump Campaign Statement on Legal Team pic.twitter.com/qzWulqPWI6
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) November 22, 2020
Last Thursday, Powell appeared at a press conference alongside Eliis, Giuliani, and others where she claimed widespread fraud connected to George Soros, the Clinton Foundation, and even Hugo Chavez who died in 2013.
President Trump even touted Powell as part of the team.
I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
I’ve spent the last four days with the President’s national legal team, and I’m confident we are going to preserve FREE and FAIR elections in America!@RudyGiuliani @SidneyPowell1
Joe DiGenova@VicToensingCOUNT ALL LEGAL VOTES!!
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) November 16, 2020
Fox News also reported on the issue:
In a statement obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Powell said: “I agree with the statement today. I will represent #WeThePeople and seek the Truth. I intend to expose all the fraud and let the chips fall where they may. We will not allow the foundations of this great Republic to be destroyed by abject fraud.”
The statement comes after Powell – who also serves as Gen. Mike Flynn’s lawyer – has given multiple press conferences on behalf of Trump, who included her in a list of lawyers for his team in a Nov. 14 tweet.
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In a Saturday-night interview with Newsmax, Powell appeared to accuse Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and its Republican secretary of state of being part of a conspiracy involving a voting-system contract award that she contends harmed Trump’s reelection bid.
“Georgia’s probably going to be the first state I’m going to blow up and Mr. Kemp and the secretary of state need to go with it,” she said, later adding that a lawsuit she planned to file against the state would be “biblical.”
It remains unclear if the Trump team is distancing itself from Powell for her comments or if they are doing it to give her more of an opportunity to explore the powerful claims of fraud without increased media pushback.
Powell has released a statement on the circumstances and stated it will be “epic:”
I agree with the campaign’s statement that I am not part of the campaign’s legal team. I never signed a retainer agreement or sent the President or the campaign a bill for my expenses or fees.
My intent has always been to expose all the fraud I could find and let the chips fall where they may–whether it be upon Republicans or Democrats.
The evidence I’m compiling is overwhelming that this software tool was used to shift millions of votes from President Trump and other Republican candidates to Biden and other Democrat candidates. We are proceeding to prepare our lawsuit and plan to file it this week. It will be epic.
We will not allow this great Republic to be stolen by communists from without and within or our votes altered or manipulated by foreign actors in Hong Kong, Iran, Venezuela, or Serbia, for example, who have neither regard for human life nor the people who are the engine of this exceptional country.
#WeThePeople elected Donald Trump and other Republican candidates to restore the vision of America as a place of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.