Photographer: Al Drago / Bloomberg
Photographer: Al Drago / Bloomberg
President Donald Trump suggested appointing Sidney Powell, the lawyer who addressed some of the initial and failed legal challenges of his campaign to the November election results, as special counsel to investigate allegations of election fraud.
Trump made the suggestion during a meeting Friday at the White House that included his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, according to a person familiar with the conversation who asked for anonymity to describe the internal discussion.
Any effort to appoint Powell to a role that investigates election results is likely to raise questions about the president’s legality of personally appointing a special attorney and the resistance of those in the administration who don’t believe his unfounded claims of widespread election fraud. Special attorneys are usually appointed by the attorney general.
Powell herself is a controversial figure who was disenfranchised by the president’s campaign last month after accusing Republican elected officials of getting involved in a plan to change election results. The conspiracy theory included unfounded allegations that former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez tried to arrange elections by manipulating the voting software, although officials from the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security said they had found no evidence. of widespread fraud to voters.
Friday’s conversation also included a discussion of an idea put forward by Giuliani to get the Department of Homeland Security to take and examine the voting machines the president has said could have been manipulated without evidence. according to the New York Times.
Trump asked about the suggestion of former national security adviser Michael Flynn during an appearance at Newsmax this week that the president could impose martial law and deploy the army for a second vote, the newspaper reports. The president rejected the report in a tweet.
The various schemes defended by the president are the latest sign of his inability to reach an agreement with his defeat against President-elect Joe Biden, who won the election by a margin of 306-232 from the Electoral College. . The president’s legal team has received strong defeats in courts across the country and has twice seen the efforts rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Earlier Saturday, Trump publicly suggested the possibility of hacking electoral systems in a Twitter post.
“It could also have been a hit on our ridiculous voting machines during the election, which is now obvious that I’ve won a lot, which makes it an even more corrupt shame for the United States,” Trump wrote.
Trump also tweeted to Tommy Tuberville after Alabama’s elected senator said he was considering joining a member of the House to oppose election results during a joint session of Congress in January, where lawmakers will ratify Biden’s victory. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged fellow Republicans not to oppose, saying he could politically hurt the party.
Biden said Thursday that he was concerned that if Trump boycotted his inauguration, it could damage the U.S. image on the world stage, though he would not take “potentially” Trump’s potential absence.
“We have been the beacon of democracy for the last 200 years, and the peaceful transfer of power, and the power that is delivered from one person to another, from one party to another, is who we are,” he said. Biden in an interview with CBS talk show host Stephen Colbert. “And that’s the part that worries me. It’s how this is reflected around the world.”
(It adds Trump’s reaction to the martial law report in the sixth paragraph.)