Trump Mulls Sidney Powell for Top Job at 'Raucous Meeting'

Trump considered naming her special counsel to probe voter-fraud allegations
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 19, 2020 4:00 PM CST
Trump Mulls Sidney Powell as Special Counsel: Report
Attorney Sidney Powell speaks during a rally on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, in Alpharetta, Ga.   (Associated Press)

Sidney Powell, special counsel to oversee voter-fraud allegations? Trump discussed the idea at a raucous White House meeting Friday night and met with some resistance, insiders tell the New York Times. Rudy Giuliani, who attended by phone, spoke out against it. So did White House counsel Pat Cipollone and chief of staff Mark Meadows. Powell, a lawyer who has aired wild conspiracy theories about Venezuela hijacking the US election, was in attendance, along with her client, recently pardoned Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Other top administration officials came and went as the roundtable devolved at times into shouting matches, according to people briefed on the meeting.

Wall Street Journal reporter Rebecca Ballhaus confirmed the story in a tweet. "Deploying the military was raised in the meeting but nixed," she wrote. "Giuliani pushed DHS to get involved but was told they don't have the authority." Flynn recently argued on Newsmax, a conservative channel, that Trump should impose martial law and have the military "rerun" the 2020 election. And Giuliani has pressured Homeland Security to help Trump's team in overturning the election, which Joe Biden won by more than 7 million votes. Attendees also discussed a possible executive order to seize voting machines and examine them. Cipollone and Meadows "repeatedly and aggressively pushed back" against ideas at the meeting, per the Times. (Dominion Voting Systems sent Powell a "scathing letter.")

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