The Kraken Has Officially Left The Building

Just hours before President-elect Joe Biden is set to be sworn in as the 46th U.S. president, pro-Trump lawyer and QAnon follower Sidney Powell has voluntarily withdrawn her lawsuit challenging the results of November’s presidential election vote in Georgia.

The lawsuit, one of four that became unofficially known as the “Kraken” lawsuits, requested the District Court for the Northern District of Georgia court invalidate millions of absentee ballots and unilaterally declare President Donald Trump the winner in the state. A federal judge wasted no time in dismissing the case last month, saying it was “the most extraordinary relief ever sought in any federal court in connection with an election” according to a report from Georgia Public Broadcasting.

Powell’s Georgia lawsuit made various baseless allegations about voter fraud, including wild claims that Hugo Chavez, the former president of Venezuela, was the founder of the Dominion Voting Systems, which she said were used to rig the elections for Biden. Dominion was founded in Canada, is currently headquartered in the U.S., and has no link to Venezuela or Chavez. 

After it was struck down in District court, Powell appealed to Georgia’s Supreme Court, but finally conceded defeat on Tuesday — well, sort of.

Powell and her fellow attorneys agreed with the defendants — including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — to have the case dismissed, according to a motion filed in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Shortly after news broke that she had withdrawn the lawsuit, Powell posted an update on her new Telegram channel, which she created after she was booted off Twitter for spreading QAnon conspiracies, and her second social media home, Parler, was de-platformed.

“For those inquiring about us dropping our lawsuit in Georgia, the delay by the Supreme Court in addressing the issues we raised rendered the issues moot on behalf of the specific clients we represented,” Powell told her 235,000 Telegram followers. “We are by no means finished with what needs to be done to get to the bottom of this fraudulent election,” she added ominously. 

Powell was part of a group of Trump-backed lawyers who filed more than 60 lawsuits across the country trying to overturn vote results and swing the election for the outgoing president. All but one of those lawsuits failed.

Powell’s wild and unsubstantiated allegations about widespread electoral fraud helped add to the atmosphere of anger and frustration that Trump fomented among his followers in the weeks after the election, and which culminated in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Now, aside from withdrawing the Georgia lawsuit, Powell’s wild allegations have come  at a personal cost. The lawyer is not only facing disbarment but she is also facing a $1.3 billion lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which says Powel’s actions caused major reputational damage and brought death threats against its employees.