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- The Trump campaign announced on Sunday that it was separating from attorney Sidney Powell.
- Powell’s savage conspiracy theories have proven too important even to President Donald Trump, according to reports, as his legal campaign to overturn the election result last week turned into a farce.
- Powell alleged a massive plot by Communists, financier George Soros, and GOP officials in Georgia to steal the election from Trump. She provided no 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 them 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 grown too onerous even for a president whose political identity is grounded in suspicion of “deep state” elites.
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
Sources close to the president told Maggie Haberman of the New York Times that Powell’s claims had grown too heavy for Trump and that for days the president was making “fuss” about Powell and Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor. of New York leading the legal challenge. .
A particular focus of his anger was last Thursday’s bizarre press conference, where Powell aired the savage conspiracy theory, offering no evidence, that Venezuelan socialists and Jewish financier George Soros had orchestrated a vast conspiracy using Voting machines rigged to steal the election from Trump.
“She was too conspiratorial even for him,” a Trump adviser told Haberman.
Another tipping point was a Pennsylvania federal judge who on Saturday dismissed the Trump campaign’s legal challenge to the state’s election result and led fierce criticism over the legal case campaign lawyers presented .
—Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 23, 2020
A Trump campaign official echoed the assessment in remarks to LA Times legal columnist Harry Litman.
In its courtroom presentations, where stating willful lies can result in serious legal penalties, the Trump campaign has notably refused to air the more inflammatory allegations by figures such as Powell.
—Harry Litman (@harrylitman) November 23, 2020
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.
Comments to Newsmax just two days after Thursday’s press conference drew criticism, even from the president’s allies.
In the interview, Powell claimed top Republican officials in Georgia, including Gov. Brian Kemp, were part of the plot to secure 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.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a longtime Trump adviser, was scathing about the Trump campaign’s hesitant legal effort to quash the election in an interview with ABC News on Sunday, describing the the president’s legal team as a “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.
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