Michigan AG Using Former Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell's 'No Reasonable Person Would Believe Me' Statements To Seek Sanctions Against Her
from the you-can-have-your-legal-defense-or-your-law-license,-but-not-both dept
In January -- shortly after the failed DC insurrection -- Dominion Voting Systems sued former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell for defamation over her repeated assertions the company was somehow involved in "stealing" the election for President Joe Biden.
As evidence of these extraordinary claims, Powell -- the self-proclaimed "kraken" -- offered up a bunch of hearsay and conjecture from QAnon-addled conspiracy theorists who took a break from trying to link prominent Democrats to ritualistic child abuse to link Dominion to a deceased Venezuelan dictator.
Accusations of vote rigging/stealing were made by Powell -- not just during press conferences and TV appearances -- but in court as sworn statements of fact. Powell's response to this lawsuit was to basically claim everyone who heard her allegations knew they were little more than heated hyperbole and expressions of her opinion.
Apparently, "everyone" also covered the judges handling her lawsuits in which she claimed her assertions were solid, fact-based, and worthy of exploration. Claiming "no one takes me seriously" may help Powell escape a defamation lawsuit, but it doesn't help her when it comes to her litigation where these same claims were expected to be taken seriously by federal courts.
Sidney Powell's inadvertent self-sabotage continues. Powell's best defense against Dominion's billion-dollar lawsuit is now being used by Michigan officials to argue the lawyer to be legally-sanctioned for lying to the courts. As Adam Klasfield reports for Law & Crime, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is wielding Powell's own statements against her to seek sanctions.
“These attorneys seemingly made statements they knew were misleading in an effort to further their false and destructive narrative,” Nessel wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “As lawyers, fidelity to the law is paramount. These individuals worked to further conspiracy theories in an effort to erode public trust in government and dismantle our systems of democracy. Their actions are inexcusable.”
Pretty much. You can't litigate using the same allegations you later claim aren't actual statements of fact. While there are some protections against defamation lawsuits for statements made in court cases, that doesn't extend to claims made in public. And when both sets of claims are pretty much identical, it becomes a real problem when you assert "no reasonable person" would believe they were "statements of fact" when that group of reasonable people now includes federal judges.
This move for sanctions is on top of the state's attempt to get Powell disbarred for attempting to overturn the state's 2020 election results with litigation state officials claimed crossed ethical lines. Governor Gretchen Whitmer's complaint against Powell make it's clear the state's serious about preventing Powell from practicing law in the state:
By filing a frivolous lawsuit based on false statements and by brazenly attempting to disenfranchise Michigan voters during the recent presidential election, she engaged in grave attorney misconduct.
Her defense in the Dominion lawsuit looks like it's going to cost her even more than what Dominion may eventually extract from Powell via its lawsuit. The best course of action would have been to not do any of the things Powell did months ago. A steady stream of stunt litigation based on allegations apparently compiled by legal experts on 4chan is a great way to find yourself out of a job and a whole lot of money.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: dana nessel, defamation, michigan, sanctions, sidney powell
Companies: dominion
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Hmm, lying to courts I had evidence of voter fraud = approx $50,0000 + disbarred in multiple states.
Lying about Dominion = $1,500,000,000.
Gee, no wonder her lawyers are going for the first one. They want to get paid too. That Trump grifting gets around.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: legal strategy
Not to mention that no matter which way the Dominion case goes, she's likely to be sanctioned anyway.
The kraken in mythology wasn't known for its intelligence or choosiness. So she seems to deserve the nickname.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
'No Reasonable Person Would Believe Me'
Well, that takes out the Trump half of the country.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So it seems "It wasn't defamatory, it was perjury! wasn't the genius legal claim she thought it would be.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Hopefully this backfires so spectacularly that she loses both sets of cases. This is almost definitely "caught lying" type of backpedaling and therefore both cases could win out against her.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
The measured statement, "These attorneys seemingly made statements they knew were misleading", suggests that the AG isn't going to say anything that will help Powell's other defenses.
I expect that she will lose cases until organizations give up solely because it's just bouncing the rubble. But that should only happen after she is disbarred.
I'm a little surprised that she hasn't gone the "you can't disbar me, I'm inactive" path:
https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2014/01/15/how-to-avoid-disbarment-disbar-yourself/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: disciplinary resignation
Just so you know, that does not work in all states. Not sure if it actually works in any, for that matter. You can generally give up the license and agree to never reapply, but anything short of that leaves you within the clutches of many states' integrated bars.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
"So it seems "It wasn't defamatory, it was perjury! wasn't the genius legal claim she thought it would be."
It is somehow the exact type of blunder you'd expect from the short-sighted gormless morons following Trump; She tried to use the Tucker Carlson defense, simply because he had done so successfully.
But there's a world of difference between someone claiming he was acting as an entertainer while pushing bullshit out of a studio, and a lawyer trying to claim they pushed that same bullshit in the face of a judge in a court of law.
If we needed any more evidence that the modern republican has taught itself to ignore "context", this would be it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
4chan legal advice is worth every penny you paid.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
First, nice.
Second, I don't believe for a second this was 4chan's doing. Not nearly enough racism, personal attacks, black humour, and circular logic in it. Doesn't make your post any less funny though.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It’s also a great way to entertain everyone who isn’t neck-deep in the Big Lie and enjoys watching delusional people slam head-first into reality. Popcorn, anyone? 🍿
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Popcorn futures!
Stop manipulating the popcorn futures market!!! :-)
"Reasonable People" must exclude judges...or cuts off the defamation argument at the knees. Sounds lose-lose to me!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sorry, Big Corn pays me too much to stop.
…
…oh crap, I shouldn’t have said Big Corn pays me.
…oh crap, I shouldn’t have said I was paid to manipulate the market.
…oh crap, I certainly shouldn’t have said that on a public-facing forum.
It’s too hot today…
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
That's OK, you can relax. No reasonable person would believe you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Popcorn futures!
What use is a popcorn bubble that doesn't burst?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
When most people get in a hole like this, they stop digging. Powell doubles down and gets a backhoe.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
She learned from the best - DJT.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Those same conspiracy theorists probably think that Powell somehow tricked Dominion into suing her, her saying "I didn't actually believe what I said" is all a part of that trick, and Dominion has fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
'That was supposed to be my get-out-of-lawsuit-free card!'
Oh do I hope that she honestly thought that she could argue her way out of a defamation lawsuit by claiming that no-one would or should take her seriously, the look on her face when she found out that her own words were being used against her like this would be priceless if that were the case, with the only thing better being if the judge laughed out her argument leaving her on the hook for the defamation and perjury.
Arguing that you weren't deliberately lying about a company in public because you were instead lying to judges about the company in court, ah the fun places someone can find themselves in when they're batshit insane and/or a grifter jumping on the bandwagon for fun and profit...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: 'That was supposed to be my get-out-of-lawsuit-free card!'
"...ah the fun places someone can find themselves in when they're batshit insane and/or a grifter jumping on the bandwagon for fun and profit..."
Well, what can I say...like her boss she is a Very Stable Genius with a 'Very, very, very large brain'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Brains, or the lack thereof...
If she were smart, she never would have been on "Trump's team". The best people, the very best people...
... run as fast as they can the other way when Trump comes calling.
Lawyer Powell deserves nothing less than disbarment, and fines that wipe her out, and take every penny of hypothetical future earnings from Fox "News" and "News"max appearances.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Brains, or the lack thereof...
Well, that's his recipe for success. The very best people are a minority, and his manner of operation requires suckers. Working with suckers is severely impaired by having even a minority of smart people around, so success requires driving them out and make them unpopular.
He is restructuring the Republican Party and the media, and the restructured Republican Party and media then forego the inclusion of sane people.
Basically it is how chronic lead poisoning work, with lead getting used in the bones instead of calcium.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What was it that was said on the previous Powell thread? "Discovery will be fun"?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I remember that idiot...he didn't seem to realize it worked both ways.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
( ( ( schadenfreude ) ) )
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I predict: One more seriously gentle wrist-slapping coming up. Sigh.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Curious
So the batshit crazy totalitarian Michigan AG is trying to impose sanctions to shut up Sydney Powell?
And how is that a good thing?
And why is that something you would write about?
You are now in favor of shutting down dissent? Is this the TechDirt stand now?
What universe are you in?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Curious
dissent
Lying is now dissent?
Man, the excuses you guys are coming up with look more desperate every day. Running out of bullshit from the Central Office, now that Trump's been relegated to the shitholes of social media?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Curious
So when, as a defense against the accusation of defamation, she claimed she didn't really believe the things she had said, that claim was a lie, she actually believes what she said about Dominion, and this should be obvious enough that the AG shouldn't do anything?
Or her claim in her defense is true, she actually doesn't believe the things she said in court about Dominion, but because she also said those same things to the public the AG should ignore her lying to the court?
Or what?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Curious
Your tears are delicious.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Curious
Reality check:
The only batshit totalitarians were the ones that failed to steal the election.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]