Michael Flynn has a new lawyer, and she has spent an awful lot of time publishing Russia investigation conspiracy theories.
That new attorney, Sidney Powell, has used her website and various social-media platforms to also argue that Flynn should withdraw his guilty plea for lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat.
Special counsel attorney Andrew Weissman is another particular target of Powell’s social media ire. She has accused him of “prosecutorial terrorist tactics” and called him the “lead villain” of her book, Licensed to Lie. The book, published in 2014, heavily criticized Weissman’s role in the Justice Department’s prosecution of Arthur Andersen LLP and Merrill Lynch.
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But her ire isn’t confined to just Weissmann: Powell has referred to the entirety of the special counsel’s office as “creeps on a mission” and registered a website in that name to publish her thoughts on the Russia investigation.
She’s pushed a conspiracy theory that “Mueller may have been kept informed during the Clinton email investigation” and that the former special counsel “may be the ‘insurance policy’ [former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page] refer to in the event Trump was elected.”
On her website, Powell also wrote that she expects former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, who spoke with Trump dossier author Christopher Steele when the Russia investigation began in 2016, “to be in the cross-hairs of a criminal investigation”—but did not specify why.
Powell has spent much of her time on social media tweeting hashtag-filled links to her book at prominent conservative pundits and Russia investigation skeptics, as well as Flynn and his son Michael Flynn Jr.
In March of 2018, Powell questioned whether Flynn’s lawyers “pursue[d] a vigorous defense” and said wrote that “I'd bet he will realize later he needs new lawyers.”
She tagged Flynn and his son in tweets of her Daily Caller article urging the former national security advisor to withdraw his guilty plea on charges that he lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak. In the article, Powell argued that Flynn should withdraw his plea because the special counsel’s office had “destroyed or is suppressing” evidence in the case.
Since the release of the special counsel’s report and Attorney General William Barr’s decision not to pursue obstruction charges against President Trump, conservative pundits like Sean Hannity have urged Flynn to change his plea and fight the charges against him.
Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI in Dec. 2017. He’s expected to cooperate in the Virginia trial of his former business partner, Bijan Kian, on charges that he failed to register as a foreign agent in connection with alleged lobbying work he and Flynn performed on behalf of the Turkish government.
