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.”
President Trump and Ellis have previously described 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—a fierce Trump ally and Republican—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 beaten Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in their Senate race had Kemp not rigged the election machines (Loeffler is set to square off against Democratic challenger Raphael Warnock in a Jan. 5 runoff.)
Key Background
Though it appears possible 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 make 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 and Media Matters For America.
Crucial Quote
At the press conference with Giuliani and Ellis on Thursday, Powell falsely claimed Trump beat President-elect Joe Biden in “a landslide” in the popular vote. In fact, Biden is on track to win the popular vote by more than 6 million votes.
Tangent
After Fox News’ Tucker Carlson voiced skepticism about Powell’s wild claim that Cuba, Venezuela and other “communists” nations hacked the election and took millions of votes away from Trump, other Trump allies rallied to Powell’s defense, according to the New York Times.
Further Reading
Who Is Sidney Powell? Meet Trump’s New Top Conspiracy Theorist. (Forbes)
Source: Forbes – Business
