UPDATE.
One of the plaintiffs says he never agreed to be part of the lawsuit in Georgia:
Just in: Cobb County GOP chair Jason Shepherd, one of seven plaintiffs on Sidney Powell’s lawsuit targeting Georgia’s election, tells me he never agreed to be a part of her complaint. “Guess this is what happens when you wait until the last minute.” #gapol pic.twitter.com/2TmhVJ5ylK
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) November 26, 2020
ORIGINAL POST.
Attorney Sidney Powell reportedly filed lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia on Wednesday alleging significant voter fraud that she says will show President Trump won both states:
Fired Trump lawyer Sidney Powell sues Georgia and Michigan officials claiming Iran and China rigged voting machines https://t.co/hNyVihvOr3 pic.twitter.com/ThgDtFrpyB
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) November 26, 2020
Unfortunately, the two lawsuits are riddled with typos and this is proving easy fodder for the blue-check crowd:
Here’s how credible Sidney Powell’s #ReleaseTheKraken lawsuits are:
In the first eight words she spells the word “district” wrong — twicehttps://t.co/RtA5DxjOEU pic.twitter.com/5xNxP7dOJd
— David Gilbert (@daithaigilbert) November 26, 2020
Reading Sidney Powell’s “Kraken” lawsuit, something many Trump supporters put hope into.
Big on claims, short on any evidence beyond affidavits— some anonymous and a lot of which we’ve seen before. Also a few typos. pic.twitter.com/AwG02nsWq9
— Jay O'Brien CBS 12 (@jayobtv) November 26, 2020
I'm reading Sidney Powell's much-hyped "kraken" legal filing. So far, she misspells her key expert's name twice — his name is William Briggs, she calls him "Williams Briggs" and "William Higgs."
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 26, 2020
The early analysis is that the lawsuits are still light on evidence and don’t specify what actually happened:
It claims w/o evidence “old-fashioned ballot-stuffing” through computer software and “egregious” conduct in five of the most GOP counties in Georgia, but never bothers to specify what allegedly happened in each. #gapol pic.twitter.com/9t6AwSkGOR
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) November 26, 2020
And many of “affidavits/examples were used in Lin Wood’s lawsuit that a Trump-appointed judge denied the TRO request for lacking standing”:
Many of these affidavits/examples were also used in Lin Wood's lawsuit that a Trump-appointed judge denied the TRO request for lacking standing and little thing called laches.https://t.co/1Y00QKoRWA
— stephen fowler covers Georgia's election! (@stphnfwlr) November 26, 2020
This suit is being brought by state and local GOP officials:
This suit is being brought by Georgia GOP presidential electors as well as chairman of the Cobb County GOP and assistant secretary of GAGOP, so this conspiracy-laden, typo-ridden lawsuit is being endorsed and pushed by the state and local party. #gapol https://t.co/t4P9bssdvJ pic.twitter.com/h9AeAMtpdX
— stephen fowler covers Georgia's election! (@stphnfwlr) November 26, 2020
One thing being overlooked is that Powell wants to investigate votes that were cast by people who moved out of state, which does seem easier to prove than the other allegations. From attorney Harmeet Dhillon:
5/ Goal is something much simpler alleged in the complaint at para. 121: That thousands of specific, identifiable voters, cast ballots after they moved out of state as evidenced in their registration in a national database, and may even have cast votes in their new states also — pic.twitter.com/sBJRIvhh7z
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 26, 2020
6/ which can easily be checked against the other state’s records. This accounts for thousands of votes. The other category @MattBraynard has researched & documented, is thousands of identifiable, specific registrations at fraudulent addresses such as P.O. Boxes, non-residential/ pic.twitter.com/UF3fUvqvlk
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 26, 2020
7/ etc. — These seem to be specific and of a sufficient volume that their disqualification would affect the outcome of the election. I think this simple tack – much easier to grasp and prove than the more complicated theories — is compelling. To critics who say this is too late,
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 26, 2020
8/ it really isn’t. How are you supposed to allege that someone cast a ballot from a fraudulent registration address or after moving, before the election? This is something that can only be checked after the votes are cast and tallied, particularly where last-minute registrations
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 26, 2020
9/ are permitted by increasingly lax voter registration policies pushed by Democrats, followed by no signature verification or other safeguards, as the lawsuit alleges. I think these “Braynard” allegations have legs, and should be pursued aggressively. A court should want to know
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 26, 2020
10/ which thousands of specific, identifiable people illegally cast ballots in Georgia. I hope the federal court allows inquiry into this low-tech challenge even if it does not bite on the more expert-and statistically-based theories. There’s time to get this right, and we must.
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 26, 2020
One other question for the Trump campaign that will be raised is who helped Powell prepare the document? According to the PDF metadata, the claimed author is Juli Haller, a DHS employee who was a Trump campaign field director:
The other interesting thing is the claimed author of both files: "Juli Haller". That likely just means who registered the copy of MS Word used to create the files, or maybe the template for the files. But…
— John Panzer (@jpanzer) November 26, 2020
The only lawyer matching that name appears to work for HUD (on detail to UCSIS/DHS) as a "Senior Policy Advisor", having worked in the administration on a few jobs after being the Northern Virginia Field Director for Donald J Trump for President, Inc.
Sooo….
— John Panzer (@jpanzer) November 26, 2020
… Why is Juli's name appearing as the "Author" in the metadata for these motions, which are created supposedly by an attorney disavowed by the Trump campaign?
— John Panzer (@jpanzer) November 26, 2020
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Editor’s note: This post has been updated.
