The Feds Are Questioning Sidney Powell And Her Pro-Trump Team

Since then Sidney Powell the spearhead of one of President Donald Trump at that time‘NS efforts in order to nullify the 2020 election, she found herself on the wrong side of a series of potentially destructive lawsuits. But the voting machine troubles are just one part of the infamous MAGA attorney’s deepening troubles.

For months, an ongoing federal investigation in Washington, DC, has requested documents and questioned potential witnesses about Powell, according to three people familiar with the matter. Similarly, a separate investigation into Powell’s anti-democratic activities took place in the Sunshine State earlier this year – and resulted in and punished Powell and her far-right group.

The sources said the federal investigation, which has not been previously reported, is examining the finances of Protect Republicans, an organization created by Powell to fund her “Kraken” lawsuits aimed at flipping reverse the 2020 election. According to two of the people familiar with the matter, a grand jury has been awarded, and subpoenas and document requests were forwarded to multiple individuals as recently as September.

Financial Defense of the Republic prompted an investigation and settlement with Florida’s charity regulator. The group paid a $10,000 fine in September as part of a settlement involving soliciting donations and failing to register as a charity in the state.

In secretly taped chats released by Powell ally Lin Wood over the past few days, former Overstock.com and Republican Defense Organization CEO Patrick Byrne accused Powell of pickpocketing. from the group to pay her defense against a multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuit. against her by Dominion Voting Systems.

Neither Powell nor a representative for Defending the Republic responded to a request for comment for this story. Neither Powell nor Defending the Republic have been charged.

Powell created Defend the Republic with great fanfare in December 2020 and listed a pro-Trump election conspiracy world insider on its founding papers. The original team’s board included former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn, brother Joe, and Q-anon enthusiast Lin Wood., an attorney with ties to Trump who recently started feud with Powell. The Republican defense attorney argued that Wood was wrong listing as a board member and subsequently removed from the registry.

Founder of Overstock.com Patrick Byrne, who briefly served as Protector of the Republican CEO, says he has his own concerns about the corporation’s finances..

In a phone call with Wood that Wood surreptitiously recorded, Byrne claimed that Byrne, Michael Flynn, and Flynn’s brother Joseph Flynn left the group in April after Powell refused permission to inspect his accounts. Republican Party.

“I gave her a laundry list of things she had to clean and told her she had to get an auditor,” Byrne told Wood on the call.

Wood published the audio of the call last week as part of a bigger feud with old friends like Flynn and Powell. Byrne confirms the authenticity of the call to The Daily Beast.

According to Byrne, Powell received a wave of donations after the election after being praised by wildly popular right-wing broadcaster Rush Limbaugh. But donations are often given indiscriminately, sometimes as a dollar bill or quarter stamp taped to a postcard sent to Powell’s law office. Byrne claimed he discovered that Powell had amassed a fortune from donations ranging from $20 million to $30 million, but offered no evidence to back up the claim. A projected budget for the Republican Guard filed with the state of Florida lists only $7 million in revenue for the group.

According to Byrne, protecting Republican funds will not go toward the pro-Trump goals donors might envision. Instead, he claims they were paid to pay the legal bills for Powell, who has faced court disciplinary issues and a tough multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit. from the Dominion Voting System.

“It shouldn’t be called ‘Defending the Republic,'” Byrne said in the recording. “It should be called ‘Defending Sidney Powell.'”

Attorneys for Dominion have also raised questions about the financing of Defend the Republic, which the voting technology company sued along with Powell. In court documents filed in May, Dominion accused Powell of “raid” [Defending the Republic’s funds] to pay for her personal legal protection. ”

Dominion’s attorneys stated in the filing that Powell began soliciting donations for the Foundation for Defense of the Republic before officially forming the group. They argue that sequence means that contributions to the group “cannot be kept separate in a bank account” and “necessarily be sent to bank accounts controlled by [Powell]. ”

While working as the CEO of Protect the Republic, Byrne said he was concerned that Powell was using the money for herself and could potentially break the law in the process. Byrne said he had determined he didn’t face liability, but was tempted to “put a dime on” Powell and alerted law enforcement.

Byrne told Wood.

Republican financial protection first attracted scrutiny from regulators in Florida shortly after Powell formed the group in November 2020 when authorities received the complaint and then issued it. subpoena against Internet hosting service GoDaddy for information about the group’s website.

During a press conference in June, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said Protector of the Republic was “detected to solicit donations from the State of Florida or from persons within the State of Florida” on the Internet “without not filed in the State of Florida” as a charity. ”

On August 24, Defending the Republic paid a $10,000 fine as part of a settlement with the Florida government over its fundraising.

As part of that deal, Powell’s team agreed to register as a charity in Florida and submit a projected budget of more than $7 million. The settlement also requires Defending the Republic to submit audited financial statements for the group’s operations from December 2020 to July 2021 by November 30, including a balance sheet. , list of expenses and revenues.

During Fried’s tenure as Florida’s agriculture commissioner, her department pursued high-profile investigations involving charities accused of misconduct. In 2019, Fried’s office investigated consumer complaints about a charity, We Build the Wall, run by Brian Kolfage and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The investigation resulted in a federal indictment against Kolfage and Bannon for fraud and money laundering (Trump later pardoned Bannon).

In fact, all of Powell’s ongoing legal troubles and rising costs stem directly from her devotion to Trump, and the reason he clung to power despite the war. Biden’s decisive 2020 win. Today, the favor has naturally disappeared. She was once a key figure in Trump’s orbit. Now, she has been abandoned and effectively banned from his property and private club.

“I have not tried to contact the President in any way since long before he left office,” Powell told The Daily Beast in late September. “My mission is simply because Truth. The American people are fed up with lies from the government and the media.”