WASHINGTON — Sidney Powell, the Dallas lawyer who was once a key member of former Donald Trump’s legal team until the former president’s personal attorneys publicly disavowed her, is the subject of renewed focus after the opening hearing by the House panel probing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Rep. Liz Cheney said in Thursday night’s prime time hearing that Powell conspired with other members of Trump’s inner circle.
Here are five things to know about Powell:
—Seizing voting machines
In her opening statement, Cheney, the panel’s top Republican, said Powell met with Trump, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani on Dec. 18, 2020 to discuss “dramatic steps.”
These steps, Cheney said, included ideas like rerunning the election and having the military seize voting machines. Cheney framed this meeting as the spark that inspired Trump to tweet later that night, “Be there,” referring to Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6. “Will be Wild!”
The Los Angeles Times reported that on that same date, Powell, Flynn and former Overstock.com Chief Executive Patrick Byrne presented Trump with a draft executive order the president could use to take control of voting machines used in the 2020 election.
The Jan. 6 panel first subpoenaed Powell, along with Giuliani and Trump campaign attorneys Jenna Ellis and Boris Epshteyn, in January of this year.
—Keeping a public profile
Powell has continued to appear at conservative events promoting Trump’s unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Powell was scheduled to attend and speak at a screening event for the pro-Trump film “2,000 Mules” Thursday evening in Dallas with Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
Promotional materials for the event, hosted by the Dallas Jewish Conservatives, said Powell would be there signing copies of two books she’s written, "Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice,"and "Conviction Machine: Standing Up to Federal Prosecutorial Abuse."
—State Bar of Texas proceedings
The State Bar of Texas is looking to levy sanctions against Powell over her failed attempts to contest the 2020 election results on the Trump campaign’s behalf.
A state bar committee filed a petition in March accusing Powell of professional misconduct over her filing of “frivolous” voter fraud lawsuits in four states, making false statements to a court and offering evidence she knew to be false.
The petition asks the court to determine an appropriate sanction, which could range anywhere from reprimand to disbarment. This is in addition to sanctions Powell has already faced in Michigan and a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems Corp. for spreading conspiracy theories related to their voting machines.
“The Texas bar decision was totally expected, but it is an unfortunate and poor decision by the bar,” Powell told Reuters. “No lawyer could practice law under the rule they would set for me.”
—Disavowed by Trump insiders
After promoting outlandish and unfounded allegations about an international conspiracy to steal the election in November 2020, Giuliani and Ellis publicly disavowed Powell and made it clear she was no longer affiliated with the Trump campaign.
“Sidney Powell is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity,” they said in a statement.
A Trump adviser reportedly told The New York Times that Powell “was too conspiratorial even for (Trump).”
—Texas connections
Powell has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1978.
Powell is originally from Durham, N.C., but she served as an assistant U.S. attorney and appellate section chief in the Western and Northern Districts of Texas.
In Western Texas, Powell was a prosecutor in the trial of American drug trafficker Jimmy Chagra for criminal enterprise violations. Among other crimes, Chagra was implicated in the 1979 assassination of U.S. District Judge John H. Wood Jr. in San Antonio.
Powell established her law firm in Dallas, focusing on high-profile lawsuits in 1993. She is affiliated with the Texas State Bar, and she was a member of the Dallas Bar Association until the end of 2014, according to the association.
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(This report contains material from The Dallas Morning News archives.)
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