We may have to devise a card game of some sort and call it Trump Co-defendants. Maybe we could use images of the co-defendants and have a kind of tarot card deck and then poker rules. Right now there are 18 co-defendants and they are going all over the place. One of the real wild cards in this game is Sidney Powell. Despite a once illustrious career as a prosecutor, she seems to be grasping at legal straws so flimsy that a first-year law student would be laughed out of class even proposing them.
Her latest is that her case should be dismissed because she didn’t do anything wrong and if she did, it’s because she had permission. Whut? The Messenger:
“As the State well knows, Coffee County officials authorized SullivanStricklerLLC to image the voting systems in the county on January 7, 2021,” her attorney Brian T. Rafferty wrote, referring to the firm retained to conduct the scan. [of voting systems, which Powell is accused of plotting to breach.]
“Both the Election Supervisor for the county and the Board authorized the review. In fact, the Election Supervisor sent an ‘invitation’ to another lawyer (who was not working with Ms. Powell) to have the forensic imaging done,” the brief continues. “This means that no data was stolen, there was no fraud, and nothing was done without authorization.”
In the wake of the 2020 presidential election, Powell frequently advanced baseless theories that other people committed election fraud. She spearheaded a series of failed lawsuits seeking to overturn then-President Donald Trump’s defeats in Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia. The federal judge presiding over her Michigan case referred her and all of her co-counsel to their respective bar associations for possible disbarment, leaving her fighting for her law license.
Now, she stands accused of committing a crime which she frequently laid at the feet of other people — and she’s denying the allegations.
In a footnote, Powell’s lawyer contends that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office has exculpatory evidence showing that she was not involved in a plan to breach Coffee County voting systems.
Fani Willis has exculpatory evidence but allowed Powell to be indicted anyway? Yeah? This I’ll believe when I see it.
If you want to read this pleading, called a Demurrer, it’s available at the hot link above. A demurrer is a legal response to a complaint which pleads for a dismissal of the action on the basis that even if the facts alleged are true, there’s no legal basis for a lawsuit. If you can figure out what she’s trying to prove with all this, please so inform the rest of the legal community, because this is sheer nuttiness. The indictment was sound, she’s trying to argue that there are holes in it and that argument is just getting laughed at so far. Not to mention the way she’s going about presenting it.
Under Georgia law, Powell’s request only can be granted if the indictment didn’t state a crime even if the allegations against her were true, but her motion goes farther, challenging the adequacy of the evidence and authorization.
Atlanta-based defense attorney Andrew Fleischman told The Messenger that makes Powell’s request procedurally improper.
“There’s no motion to dismiss for not enough evidence,” Fleishman said. “Once a grand jury has found probable cause, that determination is the determination,” until a trial.
That is the bottom line. This is not complicated, at least not at this level. Sufficient evidence was presented to a grand jury to where they found probable cause to indict. She has to show up at a trial of the case and if the evidence can be shot down there, fine, she will be found not guilty. That’s how this works.
That said, Powell is showing up in court tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. She and Kenneth Chesebro will show up when the judge hears law and motion, to ask Judge Scott McAfee for permission to interview the grand jurors that indicted her. Grand jury proceedings are secret and I don’t know how far she’s going to get with that. On its face, it sounds like Powell believes that the jurors were misinformed, who knows what, and that somehow she’s going to reverse the indictment. I am wildly speculating here because I have never heard of what she’s doing before. It does not comport with any kind of procedure that I know about.
That might be because this is something that’s never been done before. Powell may just have lost so many marbles that she should forget about law. And her lawyer may be willing to try floating these experimental legal balloons just to see if one actually flies. Seems like an exercise in futility but if Powell’s got money and she’s paying the guy, a lot can take place.
Trump world is a strange place to be but for no group of people more so than lawyers. They go out and dance the fandango every day for money. I guess it takes a certain breed of person. I don’t know if money would comfort me if everybody I respected was laughing their asses off at me, but maybe that’s the key. Maybe if you have enough money and can buy companionship, you don’t care what people of substance think. Again, my speculation.
Why would someone make a motion for dismissal after first making a motion for a speedy trial? Shouldn’t the motion for dismissal have come first? So far, the Cheese and Kraken trial will be televised and probably will be appointment TV beginning Oct 23. As crazy as she is, this trial is likely to be “lit”.
How did she even pass the first year exams at law school?
Possibly she had more brain cells in those distant days.