Sidney Powell, the pro-Trump lawyer challenging the results of the presidential election in several states, got the crux of her case wrong in a federal appeals court filing Friday.
Ms. Powell has been claiming that ballots cast for President Trump in last month’s race were somehow “flipped” to be given instead to his Democratic challenger Joseph R. Biden.
She alleged the opposite in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, however, leading her to file additional documents correcting herself later Friday once her error became apparent.
Her case was later dismissed by a three-judge panel of the appeals court.
In the original filing, Ms. Powell argued that among the alleged fraud that purported occurred in the race was use the use of “machine-controlled algorithms deliberately run by Dominion Voting Systems,” a company that makes election hardware and software used by several states in the election, “that generally took more than 2.5% of the votes from Mr. Biden and flipped them to Mr. Trump…”
Ms. Powell, who had been identified as a lawyer for Mr. Trump’s campaign until recently, acknowledged in another motion filed later Friday that she meant to say the reverse.
“Counsel for Plaintiffs are a small team handling multiple significant cases in four states—in two of which—Arizona and Michigan—counsel had hearings yesterday in addition to multiple briefs and responses due,” Ms. Powell wrote.
“In addition, counsel had internet and computer problems that delayed our communications, in addition to what can only be called ’operator errors’ by lead counsel late night that caused the omission of the list of authorities and a substantive misstatement thoughtfully,” Ms. Powell added, noting her mistake was identified on cable television shortly after.
Ms. Powell later filed a new version of the original document that clarified she claims votes meant for Mr. Trump were given to Mr. Biden. No credible evidence shows this occurred.
Dominion, which is not a defendant in the suit, has previously described Ms. Powell’s claims as wild, reckless, demonstrably false and, in some instances, “physically impossible.”
Voting in the White House race ended Nov. 3, and news outlets began calling it for Mr. Biden several days later, but Mr. Trump has not accepted defeat and maintains he won if only legally-cast ballots were to be counted.
Ms. Powell spoke at a press conference last month alongside other members of the Trump campaign’s legal team about their plans to fight in court to keep the president in office.
Trump lawyers Rudolph W. Giuliani and Jenna Ellis soon distanced themselves from Ms. Powell after she began publicly spouting discredited conspiracy theories to make her case.
Ms. Powell has since pursued several lawsuits separate from the Trump campaign alleging purported election fraud absent credible proof.
Among them was a suit filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, in which she asked for the results of the statewide presidential race to be “de-certified” and it be declared for Mr. Trump. She was denied and appealed, unsuccessfully.
“This appeal arises from last-minute litigation that alleges widespread election-related misconduct and seeks sweeping relief,” Judge Andrew Brasher ruled for the appeals panel later Friday. “The issue before us, however, is a narrow question of appellate jurisdiction: has the district court entered an order that we have jurisdiction to review? Because the answer to that question is ‘no,’ we must dismiss this appeal for lack of jurisdiction and allow the proceedings to continue in the district court.”
Leaders of federal law enforcement and cybersecurity agencies have said they found no evidence so far of any fraud that would alter the outcome of the race in favor of Mr. Trump.
Inauguration Day is Jan. 20, 2021.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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