Former President Donald Trump wanted to nominate Sidney Powell as special counsel to investigate the presidential election, the former Overstock.com CEO said Thursday in court. said in a document submitted to
Powell, an attorney who helped Trump try to find fraud in the 2020 election, announced in December 2020 that former General Michael Flynn and Overstock was in the Oval Office with Patrick Byrne. To discuss outlandish election claims, according to court documents filed in the Southern District of Florida.
During the meeting, Trump and Powell discussed the FBI's report of "foreign interference" in the election , including hacking ofSolarWinds and Cloud his providers and technology companies. We discussed our suspicions.
White House Attorney Pat Cipollone, Deputy Patrick Philbin, Another Attorney Eric Hirschman was also present.
Byrne makes similar claims in his book.
He said a number of options were discussed at the December 18 meeting. or conduct live-streaming recounts and/or simply reclaim election equipment for full use by federal authorities).
Another thought of his was to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate, but Cipollone opposed this, stating, "In the history of America, this kind of election is the first." challenge has never been before."
But Flynn, who worked for the Trump campaign, said there has never been a situation in American history where "the count stopped for hours and a foreigner connected to our equipment." I answered.
Cipollone then said Trump did not have the authority to appoint a special counsel.
Later, as Byrne writes, a visibly frustrated Cipollone said he did not want to be involved in the appointment of a special counsel.
``Hey, if you want to do this, you don't need my permission. said Byrne in a newspaper, quoting Cipollone.
After about 30 minutes of continued debate, Trump consulted a White House lawyer.
"Pat, do you know? A few minutes ago you said I could just say it and it would happen. Good.... OK. I've decided, I'll say it now." Sidney Powell is hereby appointed special counsel to the White House," the former CEO quoted Trump.
President Trump told White House lawyers: rice field. Oval Office
Cipollone denounced the Special Counsel in his deposition to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riots. He said he was "strongly opposed".
Regarding Powell, who raised many allegations of election interference, including Venezuela's involvement, Cipollone said: Stated. Anything should be appointed.
Mr. Byrne was informed by Mr. Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani that the president reversed his decision shortly after the Oval Office meeting ended on December 18 and did not appoint a special counsel.
This court filing will search Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on August 8. It was in response to a Department of Justice motion for an affidavit granting authority to an agent.
