Michigan Attorney General May Seek Sanctions Against Powell

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Tuesday announced she may seek sanctions against Sidney Powell, the Trump-connected lawyer who has filed numerous failed lawsuits in Michigan and other states across the country to overturn the 2020 election results to wrongly keep Donald Trump in power.

Nessel made the announcement in a year-end phone call with Michigan reporters, according to Michigan political reporter Jonathan Oosting. She told reporters that she is seeking sanctions against Powell for "what we believe to be an intentional misrepresentation," Oosting reported.

"I think we need to go back to a time where you can trust an attorney is making an accurate and truthful representation to the court, because if they don't, then they won't be able to practice law any more," Nessel said, according to Oosting's report.

The City of Detroit had already been asking a federal judge to punish Powell for filing what it described as an illegitimate lawsuit "to advance the false narrative that our democratic system is broken."

"Plaintiffs and their counsel understood that the mere filing of a suit (no matter how frivolous) could, without any evidence, raise doubts in the minds of millions of Americans about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election," David Fink, a lawyer for the City of Detroit, wrote in a motion seeking sanctions. "As this Court noted, 'Plaintiffs ask th[e] Court to ignore the orderly statutory scheme established to challenge elections and to ignore the will of millions of voters.'"

Detroit is asking the federal judge to fine Powell, ban her from practicing law in the Eastern District of Michigan, and refer her to the Michigan bar for more punishments.

The City of Detroit was angry over a lawsuit Powell filed seeking to decertify President-elect Joe Biden's commanding win in the state over baseless allegations of fraud from voters in Detroit.

A federal judge dismissed Powell's suit in a scathing opinion, writing: "This lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief plaintiffs seek — as much of that relief is beyond the power of this court — and more about the impact of their allegations on people's faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government."

The judge, Linda Parker, wrote that Powell was asking the court to "ignore the will of millions of voters," which was something Parker said she "cannot, and will not, do."

It's not the only lawsuit Powell lost.

A federal judge in Georgia threw out a similar lawsuit Powell filed in Georgia, which asked a federal judge to decertify Biden's victory in the Peach State and hand its electors to Trump instead, saying the suit was "the most extraordinary relief ever sought" for an election.

Powell, for her part, has told wild lies about the election results, including a bizarre and absurdly false accusation that long-dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez somehow rigged voting machines to boost Biden.

In fact, Powell's claims were so off-base that the Trump campaign's legal team had tried to distance itself from Powell's efforts in late November.

"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," Trump campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis said in a statement at the time.

However, in recent days, Trump has welcomed Powell back into his circle, inviting her to the White House as he plots last-ditch efforts to steal the election he clearly lost.

Powell's presence at the White House has unnerved even Trump's most loyal aides, who worry that someone so divorced from reality has Trump's ear.

"There is literally not one motherfucker in the president's entire orbit — his staunchest group of supporters and allies — who doesn't think that Sidney Powell should be on that first rocket to Mars," an unnamed White House source told Axios.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.