In a recent court filing, right-wing lawyer Sidney Powell claims that fair people would not have believed her claims of fraud after the 2020 presidential election.
After pushing litigation and making appearances in conservative media on behalf of then-President Donald Trump to sow skepticism about the 2020 election outcome, the election technology firm Dominion Voting Systems sued Powell for defamation. Powell allegedly knew her allegations of election fraud were false and damaging to the corporation, according to Dominion.
Powell’s lawyers write in a new court filing that she was expressing her “opinion” and that the public should “come to their own conclusions” on whether votes were tampered with by election machines.
Powell’s defense lawyers wrote in a court filing on Monday that “given the highly charged and political context of the statements, it is clear that Powell was describing the facts on which she based the lawsuits she filed in support of President Trump.”
“Indeed, Plaintiffs themselves characterize the statements at issue as ‘wild accusations’ and ‘outlandish claims.’ They are repeatedly labelled ‘inherently improbable’ and even ‘impossible.’ Such characterizations of the allegedly defamatory statements further support Defendants’ position that reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims that await testing by the courts through the adversary process.”
Election officials and Dominion have both declared Trump’s defeat in the election to be correct and free of any significant security risks. Following the election, Trump’s attorneys and supporters immediately lost or dismissed all but one small case out of nearly 60, as the then-President attempted to reverse Joe Biden’s victory in several key states.
Powell’s statement is “pathetic,” according to Rep. Peter Meijer of Michigan, who was one of the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January after the January 6 Capitol attack.
“Absolutely infuriating. GOP lost the Senate & 5 ppl died in attack on the Capitol in part bc Sidney Powell misled millions claiming stolen elections. Now Powell backtracks saying “no reasonable person” wld believe what she ALLEGED IN COURT were “statements of fact”!?! Pathetic.”
Despite the Trump campaign’s attempts to distance itself from Powell after she held a conspiracy-filled press conference with his other lawyers, Trump has stated that he likes Powell’s claims and wants to see more of her on television.
In a tumultuous Oval Office meeting in December, Trump said he considered appointing her as a special counsel to look into claims of voter fraud.
Two people familiar with the matter previously told CNN that the meeting included Powell’s client, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, and that it began as an impromptu gathering but devolved and eventually broke out into screaming matches at points, as some of Trump’s aides pushed back on Powell and Flynn’s more outrageous suggestions to overturn the election.
The next day, Trump’s legal team sent a memo to hundreds of campaign staffers, instructing them to keep all records relating to Dominion Voting Systems and Powell in case the corporation files a lawsuit.
Powell’s TV appearances and online posts were detailed in the complaint, which was filed in January, including when she reiterated her baseless beliefs that Dominion was connected to communist Venezuela and Georgia officials were involved in election fraud.
“Emboldened by Trump’s endorsement of her false accusations, which launched her into political superstardom, Powell’s defamatory media campaign continued and intensified” with her media appearances, Dominion alleged in its lawsuit.
Powell, a former federal prosecutor based in Texas, rose to notoriety after criticizing Robert Mueller’s investigation and promoting right-wing conspiracy theories on social media about a variety of topics.
Powell also argues in court that her remarks about the 2020 election were a “matter of public interest” about Dominion, a publicly traded corporation, and thus protected expression.
Powell, a former federal prosecutor based in Texas, rose to notoriety after criticizing Robert Mueller’s investigation and promoting right-wing conspiracy theories on social media about a variety of topics.
Powell also argues in court that her remarks about the 2020 election were a “matter of public interest” about Dominion, a publicly traded corporation, and thus protected expression.
Her lawyers also say she had the legal right to make the allegations because she was representing the Trump campaign as an attorney, including during her right-wing TV appearances. As a result, Powell is demanding that a judge in Washington, DC, dismiss the case or allow it to be transferred to a federal court in Texas.
