Federal judges in Georgia and Michigan sliced the tentacles off of Trump-aligned lawyer Sidney Powell’s notorious “Kraken” lawsuits Monday morning.
The suits repeated now-infamous allegations that voting-machine manufacturer Dominion—abetted by authorities in both parties—conspired with Venezuela, China, and Iran to rig the election for President-elect Joe Biden.
But Judge Linda V. Parker of the Wolverine State’s Eastern District court ripped the former prosecutor’s suit for doing little more than promoting scurrilous and unfounded innuendo about the vote counts out of Detroit and Dearborn and denied a request to decertify the state’s results.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The closest plaintiffs get to alleging that election machines and software changed votes for President Trump to Vice President Biden in Wayne County is an amalgamation of theories, conjecture, and speculation that such alterations were possible,” Parker, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote in her decision.
“This lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief plaintiffs seek—as much of that relief is beyond the power of this court—and more about the impact of their allegations on people’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government.”
Hours later, Georgia’s Northern District court dismissed Powell’s suit against the Peach State’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, along with other GOP officials. Ruling from the bench, Judge Timothy Batten—whom President George W. Bush appointed in 2006—expressed astonishment at the brazenness of Powell’s request that he hand the state’s 16 electoral votes to lame-duck President Donald Trump.
“In their complaint, the plaintiffs essentially ask the court for perhaps the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election,” Batten said.
“They want this court to substitute its judgment for that of 2.5 million Georgia voters who voted for Joe Biden, and this I am unwilling to do.”
Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. GOP attorney L. Lin Wood, who served as co-counsel on the Georgia suit, reiterated the team’s unsubstantiated claims of fraud and insinuated that Judge Batten too was complicit in the vast conspiracy against Trump.
Trump's own legal team has, at various times, sought to align or to distance itself from Powell’s bizarre and baseless allegations of multinational plots against the outgoing commander-in-chief. The president himself, meanwhile, has refused to concede and asserted the existence of a nationwide voter fraud scheme even as former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and his other attorneys have racked up loss after loss in court.
Read it at 11 Alive
