Voronwë the Faithful wrote:
N.E.B., can you provide a link about the Trump campaign claiming that if not for Brian Kemp having rigged Georgia's election, then Doug Collins rather than Kelly Loeffler would have qualified for the run-off election for the Senate? I have been able to find anything about that.
Well, the Trump campaign has just made this a little trickier, because
they're now claiming that Sidney Powell, who has thus far been appearing at the Trump election litigation press conferences with Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis, and who was identified by Trump himself as part of his campaign representation, is not part of the team. Instead, they say, she "is practicing law on her own."
And
it was Powell (1) who was
pushing the claims (2) about Kemp and Loeffler (the links are to
Real Clear Politics and the the
Washington Post, respectively.)
(1) "Powell said Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp is 'in on the Dominion scam.' Accused Kemp and GA Secretary of State of accepting financial benefits in conspiracy to defeat Trump. Evidence? 'I can't give you any more details,' she said."
(2) "Some Republicans, meanwhile, are being wrapped into theories of election interference that they themselves aren't advancing. In her weekend interview on NewsmaxTV, Sidney Powell — who has been appearing as part of the Trump legal team before they distanced themselves from her Sunday evening — said that she was 'reasonably certain John James was ripped out of his seat,' which James himself doesn't say, 'and the same thing is true for Doug Collins in Georgia.' Collins, who now represents the Trump campaign in its challenges to the Georgia count, ran 292,760 votes behind the top two finishers in the all-party Senate primary this month.'"
What's particularly striking to me about this is that just earlier today as I was reading some skeptical conservatives' commentary about Powell's wild accusations on Twitter (e.g., by Byron York of the
Washington Examiner -- and he's someone who I usually disagree with), I noticed how most of the replies were along the lines of:
The claims may sound extreme, but I trust Sidney Powell, so I'm sure when she does present the evidence, it will blow us all away. Powell has acquired a high reputation on the right over the past year as Michael Flynn's attorney. (As Marcy Wheeler has noted, if Flynn had just kept his original attorneys and fulfilled his cooperation deal in the Bijan Kian trial, he'd probably have been sentenced to nothing worse probation by Judge Sullivan a year ago or more. Instead he hired Powell and made a big show of it for reasons I have yet to understand.)
Edited to add: Oh my. Hardcore Trump supporters are already incorporating this information into their narrative as if it was always true. I checked out what Byron York had to say on this development regarding Powell as "not a member of the Trump Legal Team," and here's a sample of the apparently sincere replies:
--"Who said she was part of the Trump legal team?"
--She's a "representative of the legal team, not on the legal team."
--"Sidney had said several times she’s on her own. She’s set up a non profit to help pay for her work."
--"No one needs to panic. This is just clarification since Media butchered everything. Sidney Powell and I have both said that she’s working for free and with a team she has autonomy over. All good. #PLAN" (That's someone with the "Stop the Steal" group.)
--"She is representing the 'people' in this case; her case has Equal Protection (Constitutional) ramifications. How the case is strategically presented will have jurisdictional ramifications.She’s filing on behalf of the voters."
(Oh, and York himself still believes Powell has done good work for Flynn.)