WASHINGTON -- The Trump campaign’s legal team is moving to distance itself from a firebrand conservative attorney, Sidney Powell.
The effort comes after a tumultuous several days in which Powell made multiple incorrect statements about the voting process, alleged unsupported and complex conspiracy theories, and vowed to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” lawsuit.
A statement from President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, states that Powell isn't part of the Trump legal team and is “practicing law on her own.”
Odd statement out from the Trump campaign: pic.twitter.com/9r7ky0Hjhw
— Mark Meredith (@markpmeredith) November 22, 2020
Powell did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
Trump's legal efforts to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election have failed in case after case.
Trump's legal team cried vote fraud, but courts found none
Trump’s campaign has filed plenty of lawsuits in six states as he tries to upend an election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
The strategy may have played well in front of TV cameras, but it's proved a disaster in court, where judges uniformly have rejected claims of vote fraud.
The latest case ended Saturday, when a federal judge in Pennsylvania said Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani presented only “speculative accusations” and no proof of rampant corruption in the vote.
The president and other plaintiffs filed notice of appeal Sunday, a day after the judge issued a scathing order shooting down claims of widespread irregularities with mail-in ballots. U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Brann wrote in his order that Trump had asked the court to disenfranchise almost 7 million voters.
In seeking such a “startling outcome,” he said, a plaintiff could be expected to provide compelling legal arguments and “factual proof of rampant corruption” — but “That has not happened."
A law school professor says the suits threaten the future of elections because so many Americans believe the claims being made by Trump's team.
