Former Donald Trump inner circle figure and election-denying attorney Sidney Powell was never Trump’s attorney, according to an early morning weekend post by the former President on Truth Social.
On Monday, Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts, including conspiring to intentionally interfere with election duties. She agreed — in what court watchers say may be potentially devastating for Trump — to cooperate with Georgia prosecutors by testifying against the other defendants.
Note: Fellow Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro also struck a deal with Georgia prosecutors in which he will avoid jail time and provide evidence that could implicate other defendants. Fulton County DA Fani Willis‘s case named 18 co-defendants along with Trump in a sweeping RICO case.
On October 22, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that Powell wasn’t his attorney. He raged in all caps that Powell “WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, NEVER WAS.” (This despite Powell once being considered part of Trump’s “Elite Strike Force.”)
Trump claims the media gets it wrong and there would have been a conflict of interest in Powell representing him since, according to Trump, Powell “did a valiant job of defending” retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn in the 2019 case United States v. Flynn. After pleading guilty to making false statements to the FBI, Flynn was pardoned by Trump.
Trump wrote that Flynn — who pleaded guilty to lying to a government agency — was “governmentally abused.”
Trump now says he really doesn’t know Sidney Powell and she was Michael Flynn’s lawyer not his. pic.twitter.com/YTrZAORG6Y
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 22, 2023
Georgia DA Willis has cited a meeting held at the White House with Trump, Flynn and Powell and other campaign advisers “where the group floated ways of overturning the 2020 election results, including martial law and seizing voting machines.”
A Washington Post article covering that meeting described the Trump petitioners as a “motley crew of unofficial Trump advisers” who “had talked their way into the Oval Office and an audience with the president of the United States to argue the election had been stolen by shadowy foreign powers.”
The term “unofficial” in the article seems to back Trump’s claim that Powell didn’t work directly for him. It also refutes Trump’s claim that the mainstream media got that wrong.
