Trump Wants To Name Sidney Powell As Special Counsel For ‘Election Fraud’

Reprinted with permission from DailyKos

Back on November 23, Donald Trump disowned lawyer Sidney Powell after she went into a prolonged rant about how machines built by Dominion Voting Systems were designed to help ensure that long dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez never lost an election. Powell accused Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger of being involved in a kickback scheme that sold out the vote for cash, and claimed that voting machines were sending information to a server in Germany.

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Powell has followed up this session with claims that "dead people voted in massive numbers," and sought special protection for what she claimed was information from a secret military official code-named "Spyder" (who turned out to be a 40-something IT guy from Dallas who was definitely did not have the intelligence clearing Powell claimed). All of this has resulting in rulings like the one from Michigan, where the state noted that Powell was engaging in "fantastical conspiracy theories" from the "fact-free outer reaches of the Internet." A federal judge ruled that Powell's lawsuit was an "amalgamation of theories, conjecture, and speculation."

Naturally, Trump likes what he sees. And wants to name Powell a "special counsel" to make nonsense claims about the election from now until infinity.

To be clear, Donald Trump does not have the authority to appoint special counsels. That responsibility lies with the attorney general. William Barr has already created one such position when he made John Durham a special counsel for looking into the Russia investigation at the end of November. With Barr departing, it may fall to acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen to rubber stamp Trump's requests for sowing land mines all over Capitol Hill. Trump wants special counsels not just to look into the election he lost by over 7 million votes, but also to continue following conspiracy theories centered on Hunter Biden.

Should Rosen prove unexpectedly reluctant to give Trump everything he wants, Trump is said to be looking at whether he can just appoint a special counsel himself. No, that's not in the law, but since Republicans have made it explicitly clear that Trump can do anything he wants, and the majority of House Republicans just signed onto an attempt to overthrow the government … sure. Why not?

Now The New York Times is reporting that Trump met with Powell in the White House on Friday, to discuss whether she's the right person to continue generating lies, damn lies, and really huge f__king lies about the election ad infinitum. Sure, Powell's lawsuits have been laughed out, kicked out, or tossed out of every court at every level. But having either facts or the law on her side wouldn't really matter for Special Counsel Sidney Powell. She could just take her "kraken," change a few words in the header, and hand it over as a "report of findings." That way Republicans in Congress, and commentators on Fox News, could report election fraud lies as "proven" for the rest of ever.

The meeting to discuss naming Powell to this position supposedly became "raucous" as other members of the White House staff "opposed the idea." Which may be the most unbelievable part of the story. Anyone still at this White House should know by now that the only thing on Trump's mind is how to make things worse. Sidney Powell is perfect for that job.