Sidney Powell, a former attorney for the Trump campaign, is at the center of a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed by voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems back in January. On Monday, she filed for dismissal of the suit, saying that her statements about rampant voter fraud were opinion and legal theory and that “no reasonable person” would believe to be facts. Powell, who repeatedly pressed unfounded claims of voter fraud on the airwaves and in court, now says that “reasonable” people would not accept her statements as “fact” because the legal process hadn’t yet played out. It was a stunning admission from a woman who served for a time as one of Trump’s top legal lieutenants. It could also put her in real legal jeopardy as she fights the defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems — a manufacturer that provides election equipment used by more than 40% of US voters — as well as a motion for sanctions in Michigan as a part of a case she brought there alleging election fraud.
Not long after Biden’s win in November, Powell became one of the loudest voices making unfounded claims of election fraud. Trump soon added her to his legal team filing lawsuits to overturn the election results. She called the evidence she collected for the case against the election results as the “Kraken,” referencing a mythological sea monster. Trump quickly distanced himself from Powell following a press conference she held with Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani where claims were made that “communist money” influenced the election. Giuliani has also been served with a defamation lawsuit by Dominion. In the two cases, both still pending, her lawyers appear to contradict each other. In the defamation case filed by Dominion, her lawyers claim in a motion to dismiss that what Powell said about voting issues could not reasonably be established as fact at the time she said it. In the Michigan case her lawyer calls allegations that she lied “outrageous” and “entirely unacceptable.”
CIMA Law Group Blog 