- President Donald Trump has told Sidney Powell that he will not make her special counsel in the White House for investigating voter fraud in the 2020 election, The Daily Beast reported.
- At a meeting last Friday, Trump reportedly raised the idea of appointing Powell, and top aides, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, strongly opposed this.
- Powell, an attorney and conspiracy theorist, had been seen in the White House for the past fourteen days throwing Trump legal strategies.
- Giuliani on Tuesday confirmed the president’s decision to oust Powell, telling The Daily Beast, “She’s on her own.”
- The Trump campaign distanced itself from Powell in November, with The New York Times reporting at the time that she was “ too conspiratorial even for him. [Trump]. “
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President Donald Trump has personally blocked conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell from becoming a White House special counsel, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday.
According to The New York Times, during a meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump had expressed the idea of appointing Powell as a special counsel to investigate electoral fraud.
However, the idea did not sit well with White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, The Times said.
Powell also attended the “raucous” rally, The Times said, and was joined by former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Amid opposition to her nomination, Powell reportedly called Trump’s aides “quitters.”
However, Trump told Powell on Monday that he would not give her special counsel, The Daily Beast reported.
It is not clear how the decision came about. Insider has contacted the White House and Powell for comment.
President Donald Trump watches a presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to wrestler Dan Gable at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on December 7, 2020.
Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
Giuliani confirmed the decision Tuesday, telling The Daily Beast, “She’s on her own.”
On Tuesday, Powell told Fox News that she had been barred from interacting with Trump, according to Forbes.
Powell is best known for her wild conspiracy theories about how Trump’s election was stolen – ideas that made the Trump campaign legal team distance themselves from her in November.
As Insider’s Josh Barro has reported, Powell has claimed that Trump’s election was stolen by factions from George Soros and the Clinton Foundation, to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013), the country of Serbia and “ probably China. ” “
She has also groundlessly accused Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, two companies that make voting equipment and software, of converting votes from Trump to President-elect Joe Biden.
She also cited Ron Watkins, a prominent figure in the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, in an affidavit earlier this month.
Powell previously served as a lawyer for the Trump campaign, but was let go in mid-November, with sources telling The New York Times that Powell was “ too conspiratorial even for him. [Trump]. “
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Donald Trump, speaks at a press conference at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee on Thursday, November 19, 2020 in Washington.
Jacquelyn Martin / AP Photos
Since Biden won the election, Trump and his allies have claimed without evidence that the election was fraudulent. None of the legal challenges posed by the Trump campaign to reverse the 2020 presidential election result has been successful.
White House guards reported that Powell had been seen on the property several times in the past two weeks.
Journalists at the White House on Sunday saw Powell leave the building, and The New York Times reported she had thrown Trump an executive order ostensibly allowing him to confiscate voting machines.
On Tuesday Powell retweeted a message that said she would be indicting a slew of people over electoral fraud within weeks if she is appointed Special Counsel for the White House.
—Murray 🇺🇸 (@ Rothbard1776) December 22, 2020
Despite opposition from Giuliani, Trump was pleased with Powell and her ideas, The Times and The Daily Beast reported.
Even before being denied the post by Trump on Monday, Giuliani had publicly tried on several occasions to distance the president from Powell and her views.
“Let me say definitively that Sidney Powell is not part of our legal team, she hasn’t been in five weeks,” Giuliani told right-wing cable channel Newsmax on Monday.
She’s not a special counsel for the president, she doesn’t speak on behalf of the president, nor does she speak for the administration. She speaks for herself. ‘