Trump reportedly considered appointing controversial lawyer Sidney Powell to lead election fraud investigation

The Trump campaign may have distanced itself from attorney Sidney Powell in its longshot fight to overturn the presidential election results, but President Trump has another job in mind for the controversial lawyer, The New York Times reports.

During a Friday meeting at the White House, Trump discussed making Powell a special counsel investigating voter fraud, two people briefed on the discussion told the Times. The president's advisers were reportedly not fond of the idea — Powell has largely fallen out of favor even among Trump's most ardent loyalists because she's pushed baseless conspiracy theories that Trump's loss stemmed from a Venezuelan plot involving corrupted voting machines.

Powell was at the White House for the meeting, which reportedly became "raucous" at times, and accused Trump's advisers of being quitters, the Times' sources said. Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and White House counsel Pat Cipollone were reportedly two of the people who rejected the idea.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Per the Times, the meeting also involved a discussion about an executive order to take control of voting machines to examine them. Giuliani has reportedly made separate but similar calls for the Department of Homeland Security to seize the machines, only to be told the department does not have the authority to do so. Read more at The New York Times.