Days after taking part in a late-night Oval Office meeting to discuss election fraud, Sidney Powell claims she has been barred from speaking to President Trump.
Powell—a conspiracy-minded lawyer known for her infamous “Kraken” lawsuits which made baseless claims of widescale voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election—told Fox News that she has been “blocked by White House counsel and others from seeing or speaking to the President” after raising “even more evidence of foreign interference from Iran and China.”
Powell had reportedly been seen at the White House three times in the last week, including as part of a chaotic meeting last Friday that was first reported by The New York Times. During that meeting, which also included Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, newly pardoned Gen. Michael Flynn, chief of staff Mark Meadows, and White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Trump floated the idea of naming Powell special counsel for election fraud. Meadows and Cipollone vehemently opposed the idea, stating that Powell had “no constitutional authority for what was being discussed.”
A source familiar with Friday’s meeting told Axios that there were "raised voice levels and animated conversation" after Trump’s aides grew tired of Powell’s unhinged conspiracy theories.
"It's basically Sidney versus everybody," the source said. "That is why voices were raised. There is literally not one motherf—r in the president’s entire orbit — his staunchest group of supporters and allies — who doesn't think that Sidney Powell should be on that first rocket to Mars."
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On Tuesday, The Daily Beast reported that Trump did not plan to appoint Powell as special counsel to investigate election fraud. Giuliani confirmed the reports, stating that Powell was “on her own.”
Though shunned by the Trump campaign, Powell remains a popular figure within conspiratorial underbelly of the internet. Much of that comes from her longstanding allegiance to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, as well as influential figures in the movement like Flynn and attorney Lin Wood, both of whom have called for Trump to declare martial law. She has been featured on popular QAnon YouTube shows as far back as November 2019 and has been known to use QAnon slogans and hashtags in her social media posts. Even her electoral fraud lawsuits are rooted in conspiracy theories that were propagated, in part, on QAnon forums and spaces. (Read Right Wing Watch’s in-depth reporting on Powell here)
Among the baseless claims in Powell’s lawsuits were accusations levied against Dominion Voting Systems, a company that makes voting machines and software used in several states. Powell claimed that Dominion had rigged the election in favor of president-elect Joe Biden and even went so far as to cite Ron Watkins, the former administrator of the 8kun messageboard and an influential figure in the QAnon movement, in her affidavit. A top Dominion employee was forced to go into hiding after becoming a target of Powell’s conspiracy theories is now suing the former Trump campaign attorney for defamation. Right-wing outlets such as Fox News and Newsmax have also walked back election fraud claims after Dominion threatened legal action.
It remains to be seen whether Powell will continue to push ahead with her lawsuits, though it is worth noting that none of her legal challenges seeking to overturn the election have been successful.
