On Sunday, Donald Trump posted to his social media platform, “Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS,” he wrote.
This declaration comes just days after Trump’s former lawyer, Sidney Powell, took a plea deal and pleaded guilty to criminal charges against her in Fulton County, Georgia.
The charges revolved around her involvement in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
In his post, Trump called Powell “one of millions and millions of people who thought … correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN.”
Trump further claimed that Powell would have faced a conflict of interest if she had been his attorney.
Powell had previously represented General Michael Flynn, who served as Trump’s National Security Adviser and pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia in the early days of the Trump presidency. He was later pardoned by Trump.
Trump has made prior attempts to distance himself from Powell.
In 2020, the Trump campaign claimed that Powell did not work with them, nor was a personal lawyer to Trump, despite Trump’s previous descriptions of her as a part of his legal team.
Last week, Powell became the second co-defendant to take the plea deal in the Georgia case against Trump.
In 2020, Powell gained widespread attention for her continual promotion of the unfounded claims that the election was rigged.
She filed failed lawsuits in multiple battleground states and alleged that the results were compromised due to issues with the voting machines.
Powell worked alongside Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and others to illegally copy data from machines in Coffee County, Georgia, allegedly to investigate the election.
Powell currently faces defamation lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, whose voting machines she claimed were compromised.
In Fulton County Superior Court last week, Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit election interference. This was one day before she was set to stand trial on felony racketeering charges.
As a part of her plea deal, Powell agreed to six years of probation, a $6,000 fine, $2,700 in restitution and promised to “truthfully testify” at the trials of her co-defendants, which will potentially include Trump.
