Chump

nytimes.com

Meet Sidney Powell - champion conspiracy monger and member of Donald Trump’s Elite Strike Force leading the former president’s failed post-election legal effort.  Dominion Voting Systems is suing her (among others) for defamation.

In a Monday court filing lawyers for Powell outlined her defense.  Basically, do not believe a thing she’s said – it’s all make believe.  Made-up stuff.

Powell’s attorneys write that she was sharing her opinion and that the public could reach their own conclusions about whether votes were changed by election machines.  In the filing there is this - Given the highly charged and political context of the statements, it is clear that Powell was describing the facts on which she based the lawsuits she filed in support of President Trump. 

The problem is that Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani advanced the bizarre claim that Dominion voting machines were created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez (dead now for eight years) and that corrupt Dominion machinery manipulated the vote count in such a way that dark and sinister forces stole the election from Trump by means of an algorithm that switched the votes of unknown numbers of ballots.  Of course, even though Trump’s own Justice Department found no evidence of widespread voter fraud the damage was done.  This was The Big Lie.

Vast numbers of people have bought-into The Big Lie with polling supporting the notion that three-fourths of Republicans believe the 2020 election was fraudulent.   And a pro-Trump mob rioted and attacked the US Capitol because they believed they had to stop the steal.  People died.  And certain rioters are likely going to bear witness to the comforts and hospitality afforded by a stay in a federal penitentiary.  But I digress.

As a consequence of all of this Dominion’s reputation was damaged and in January the company filed defamation suits against multiple individuals who advanced The Big Lie.  In Sidney Powell’s case they are seeking $1.3 billion in damages. 

The twisted irony in all of this is that Trumpian logic now advances the legal defense that reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact. 

Which is another way of Sidney Powell's defense team saying if you believe any of her nonsense you’re a chump - thrown under the bus.

In anticipation of the warm-up to the discovery portion of the legal action I have stocked-up on microwave popcorn and Merlot. 

Stay-tuned…..