Former attorney for Donald Trump Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to election subversion in Georgia last week. Now Trump is trying to make us all believe she never worked for him.
Powell, along with Trump and a slew of co-defendants, is being charged with trying to change the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. This case centers on Trump’s infamous phone call trying to get Georgia’s Secretary of State to try to “find votes” so he could win the election. After losing the election, Trump assembled a legal team to combat his loss (and reality). On November 15, 2020, Trump tweeted his lineup of lawyers, including Sidney Powell.
We all remember Powell from that bizarre press conference in November 2020. While Rudy Guilani’s hair dye seemed to drip from his face under the heat of the lights, Powell proclaimed she would “release the Kraken.” Although she was later fired from the team, Powell did serve as Trump’s attorney. Which is one reason she is a co-defendant in the first place.
Do you want the truth or the “truth”?
After Powell’s guilty plea, Trump tried to pretend she never represented him. Over the weekend, Trump proclaimed on his personal social media site, Truth Social, that Powell didn’t work for him. He said:
“Sidney Powell was one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN, AND OUR COUNTRY IS BEING ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED BECAUSE OF IT!!! MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted.”
It’s not surprising that Trump would use tactics of lying or trying to distance himself from Powell. But to say that Powell “never was” his attorney, when we all know she was, is just dumbfounding.
In the novel 1984 by George Orwell, the government seeks to control citizens on every level, down to their thoughts. Although this isn’t the first time in recent history Republicans have seemed like they are trying to bring the novel to life, it just struck a deeper chord. Trump’s blatant lies feel exactly like one line from 1984, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Trump’s history of lying, and cult of people who eat up anything he says as the gospel, makes him think he can get away with anything. He thinks if he says Powell wasn’t his attorney, we will all believe him. Despite us seeing and hearing the obvious fact that she was employed by his campaign, we should ignore that. Of course, Trump’s followers will probably go with whatever version of the truth he says. But this is a great reminder of what kind of person Trump is and how we should keep him far from any kind of governmental power.
(via CNN, featured image: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
