On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis issued an abrupt statement in which they attempted to distance the Trump campaign from lawyer Sidney Powell — although Donald Trump himself announced Powell’s original membership in his legal team in a tweet, and just days ago, Powell appeared alongside Giuliani and Ellis on stage at a wild, free-wheeling press conference at which Giuliani alleged the existence of a centrally-planned Democratic conspiracy to fraudulently swing the election to Biden. On Sunday, Giuliani and Ellis said that Powell “is not a member of the Trump Legal Team” — so did she get fired? Are they trying to pretend like she was never a member of the “team” in the first place?
Giuliani and Ellis’s statement read as follows:
‘Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.’
The Trump campaign just threw Sidney Powell under the bus. pic.twitter.com/Hmwd0mgmWZ
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 22, 2020
Again — Donald Trump himself originally announced Powell as a member of his legal team, so did Powell just get fired? A little over a week ago, Trump posted the following rather unequivocal message on Twitter:
‘I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!’
I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020
This whole debacle unfolded the day after Powell shared a series of truly unhinged claims during an appearance on Newsmax TV, where she claimed that top Georgia officials had received supposed financial incentives in exchange for using supposedly corruption-plagued Dominion voting machines during the election. She also claimed that Dominion machines had also been rigged to hand the 2016 Democratic presidential primary to Hillary Clinton — and Powell didn’t stop there! She also claimed that Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s main challenger that year, knew about this supposed fraud and had been paid off to keep quiet. These claims are all, quite simply, unhinged.
Powell now accusing Kemp and Raffensperger of receiving financial benefits in exchange for using Dominion voting machines. Newsmax host asks her to clarify, she says: "We have certainly been told that there is evidence of that."
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) November 22, 2020
Powell now telling Newsmax that Bernie Sanders actually won the Democratic primary in 2016 but the machines were rigged to give Hillary Clinton the win, says Sanders knows but he was paid off to keep quiet.
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) November 22, 2020