President Donald Trump’s campaign legal team reportedly had conversations on making controversial lawyer Sidney Powell a special counsel investigating voter fraud, furthering Mr. Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud.
The New York Times reported Mr. Trump discussed making Powell a special counsel investigating voter fraud in a White House meeting on Friday but his advisers were reportedly against the idea. Last month, the Trump campaign distanced itself from Powell after she went on an unhinged rant, claiming the 2020 presidential election was rigged by the United States working with late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
“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,” Rudy Giuliani and another lawyer for Trump, Jenna Ellis, said in a statement at the time.
Powell quickly fell out of favor among Mr. Trump’s most loyal backers due to her pushing baseless conspiracy theories without any evidence. At the White House meeting on Friday, Powell was becoming angry and accused Mr. Trump’s aides of being quitters, according to The Times.
The Times also reported discussions centered around an executive order to take control of voting machines to examine them with Giuliani suggesting it, asking the Department of Homeland Security to look into it but was later told the department has no authority to do so.
Tensions rising, causing a deep divide between the Trump campaign’s general counsel, Matt Morgan and Giuliani. Mr. Trump has been upset and focused solely on overturning the election results, reportedly telling his aides to fight hard like Powell is. The President, who has admitted to watching cable news in the past, reportedly wants to see more of his surrogates on television defending him.
Mr. Trump’s legal team sent a memo out to staffers on Saturday, instructing them to preserve all documents related to Dominion Voting Systems in an apparent anticipation of potential litigation by the company against Powell.
Per CNN, the memo states, “Please make sure that relevant personnel is aware that these records must be maintained. The files or boxes should be labeled, “DO NOT DESTROY WITHOUT PRIOR AUTHORIZATION FROM THE GENERAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE.”
The memo added: “In the future, you may be contacted by counsel and asked to turn over copies of relevant information in your possession. For now, preserve all such records until further notice. Other than for purposes of preserving records in response to this request, you should not discuss this matter or potential lawsuits with anyone inside or outside the Campaign.”
The report is just the latest among several that Mr. Trump is beginning to believe his own lies of baseless claims of voter fraud, despite there being no evidence. It was reported late last week that aides fear the President may refuse to leave the White House when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20.
