Sidney Powell argues that the conspiracies she routinely sprouted constituted legally protected first amendment speech, claiming that ‘no reasonable person’ would believe her election lies.
A key member of the legal team that sought to overturn the 2020 election in favour of Donald Trump is defending herself against a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit by arguing that “no reasonable person” could have mistaken her wild claims about election fraud last November as statements of fact.
In a motion to dismiss a complaint by the voting machine company Dominion, lawyers for Sidney Powell argued that elaborate conspiracies she laid out on TV and radio last November while simultaneously suing to overturn election results in four states constituted legally protected first amendment speech.
“No reasonable person would conclude that the statements were truly statements of fact,” argued lawyers for Powell.
When news of the lawsuit came out earlier this year, OGN reported that if America was ever to get the truth re-established (and become a fact based democracy again), painful as it would be, it was good news that Dominion, the deeply maligned company, was aiming to set the record straight. It's unimaginable that this ludicrous defence of 'no reasonable person' is going to achieve the case being thrown out, and we can only look forward to the antics of Sidney Powell going to court and earning her the appropriate sentence for defamation and, by extension, lying and cheating.
As you might expect, Powell's defence brought expressions of disbelief from Trump critics.
“This is her defense. Wow,” tweeted the Republican representative Adam Kinzinger.
“Bad argument!” tweeted Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen. “[Powell] should have gone with an insanity defense due to #TrumpDerangementSyndrome.”
As Trump fought to reverse his election loss in November, he touted that Powell was a key part of “the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS”. Shortly after that, Powell appeared at a news conference hosted by the Republican National Committee alongside Giuliani, whose hair dye memorably ran down his face, and Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis.
The group was “an elite strike force team that is working on behalf of the president and the campaign”, Ellis announced. Then Powell faced the cameras and claimed to have identified “massive influence of communist money through Venezuela, Cuba and likely China in the interference with our elections here in the United States”.
We can't wait to hear what Giuliani's defence is going to be!