Trump lost patience with conspiracy theorist Powell’s lawyer: NYT



[ad_1]

  • The Trump campaign announced on Sunday that it was parting ways with lawyer Sidney Powell.
  • Powell’s savage conspiracy theories have proven too important even to President Donald Trump, according to reports, as his campaign to overturn the election result in court fell into a farce last week.
  • Powell alleged a massive plot by Communists, financier George Soros, and GOP officials in Georgia to steal the election from Trump. She did not provide any convincing evidence to support the allegations.
  • Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

When President Donald Trump announced on November 15 the legal team leading his campaign to overturn the presidential election result, including Dallas attorney Sidney Powell, he described the members as a “really great team.”

But only a week later, the Trump campaign suddenly distanced itself from Powell. The attorney’s extravagant conspiracy theories have apparently grown too onerous even for a president whose political identity is grounded in the suspicion of “deep state” elites.

Sources close to the president told Maggie Haberman of the New York Times that Powell’s claims had grown too onerous for Trump and that for days the president had “waved” about Powell and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York to lead the Trump campaign challenge. before the courts.

A particular focus of his anger was said to have been the bizarre press conference last Thursday, where Powell broadcast the savage conspiracy theory – without any evidence – that Venezuelan socialists and Jewish financier George Soros had orchestrated a vast plot using machines. to vote rigged to steal Trump’s election.

“She was too conspiratorial even for him,” a Trump adviser told Haberman.

Another tipping point apparently was a federal judge’s rejection on Saturday of the Trump campaign’s challenge to the Pennsylvania election result, a rejection that included fierce criticism of the legal case brought forward by campaign lawyers. .

A Trump campaign official echoed this assessment in remarks to Los Angeles Times legal columnist Harry Litman.

In its courtroom presentations, where stating willful lies can result in serious legal sanctions, the Trump campaign has notably refused to air the more inflammatory allegations of figures such as Powell.

Powell is no stranger to conspiracy theories in his defense of clients.

As an attorney for Michael Flynn, a former White House national security adviser, she has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory, whose adherents baselessly believe that a “deep state” cabal of Hollywood stars and Democrats Child abusers are secretly plotting against Trump and his allies.

The comments to the far-right news agency Newsmax just two days after Thursday’s press conference drew criticism, even from allies of the president.

In the interview, Powell claimed top Republican officials in Georgia, including Governor Brian Kemp, were part of a plot to fix the election.

“Georgia is probably going to be the first state I am going to blow up and Mr Kemp and the secretary of state have to go,” she said, adding that her trial would be “biblical” in its magnitude.

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who has long advised Trump, was scathing on Sunday about the Trump campaign’s hesitant legal effort to overturn the election, describing the president’s legal team to ABC News as ” national embarrassment “. He criticized Powell’s claims about Georgia GOP officials, describing his conduct as “outrageous.”

In a statement released after the Trump campaign severed ties with her, Powell refused to back down, pledging to submit an “epic” trial this week containing evidence of claims that alienated her from the president’s allies.

Powell did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.



[ad_2]

Source link