Rudy Distances Trump From Sidney Powell as She Visits White House for Third Time
“She is not a special counsel for the president, she does not speak for the president, nor does she speak for the administration.”
Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani attempted to put some distance between President Donald Trump and his legal team and former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell, insisting on Monday night that Powell “does not speak for the president” and that she only “speaks for herself.”
Giuliani’s disavowal of Powell, however, comes as the conspiracy-peddling “Kraken” lawyer met with Trump at the White House for the third time in the past four days.
Over the past week, an increasingly desperate Trump has weighed several last-ditch efforts to try to overturn the election he decisively lost. Besides contemplating former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s idea of imposing martial law to “rerun” the election, he’s proposed making Powell—who was dropped from the Trump legal team last month—a special counsel for election fraud.
Interviewing Giuliani on Newsmax show Spicer and Co. on Monday night, former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer asked about Powell’s recent meetings with the president and the rumors around her possibly being made a special counsel. (Outgoing Attorney General Bill Barr said Monday that he has no plans to make any such appointment.)
“Let me say definitely that Sidney Powell is not part of our legal team, she hasn’t been for five weeks,” Giuliani said. “She is not a special counsel for the president, she does not speak for the president, nor does she speak for the administration.”
“She speaks for herself,” he continued. “She’s a fine woman, a fine lawyer. Whatever she’s talking about is her own opinion. I’m not responsible for it, the president isn’t, nor is anyone else on our legal team.”
Giuliani, who it should be pointed out has pushed many of the same unhinged election conspiracies as Powell, then seemed to question Powell’s legal strategy to overthrow the election. (Both Powell and the Trump campaign have suffered a series of humiliating defeats in the courts.)
“We’re going to be extremely aggressive, we’re going to fight for our client as hard as we can,” the former New York City mayor declared. “But we’re also going to do in within the bounds of rationality, common sense, and the law. And it can be done. There’s no reason to go beyond anything.”
Just last month, Giuliani and Powell were sharing the same stage at a bizarre press conference that featured Giuliani’s hair dye streaking down his face while Powell spun a fantastical tale about corrupt voting software and the long-dead dictator Hugo Chavez stealing millions of votes from Trump. Powell left the Trump legal team soon thereafter, when she further included Georgia Republicans in her vast international conspiracy.
Even though the Trump campaign has disavowed Powell, the president has remained in touch with her and fellow Trump-boosting attorney Lin Wood, who have continued to push their own bumbling election lawsuits separately from the Trump legal team. While the courts have rejected Powell’s “Kraken” lawsuits, the president has encouraged her and Wood to keep pressing ahead with their ludicrous cases.