Who Is Sidney Powell?

            I chose Sidney Powell for my weekly VIP because she made a powerful difference in the Flynn case. Powell is the lead attorney for Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn who was charged with lying to the FBI. She came on his case, and fireworks started. 


            The first time that I remember hearing about Powell was when the Department of Justice announced its plans to drop the Flynn case due to improprieties of his own lawyers and the prosecutors. The next thing we heard from Powell was her accusation that former President Barack Obama, other top administration officials, and the FBI set up her client. She cited the revelation in recently released documents that said the FBI agents failed to tell Flynn that he was under investigation or to warn him that lying to them would a federal crime.


            Powell emphasized that Obama knew about the telephone call in December 2016 between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak prior to the FBI interview of Flynn on January 24, 2017. Then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates testified that Obama’s knowledge of the call surprised her when she learned about it.


            I recognized immediately that Sidney Powell had a powerful presence as well as being a brilliant attorney, so I wanted to know more about her personally. I found the following at her web site. She has practiced law “for decades” in the Fifth Federal Circuit, while representing “individuals, corporations, and governments in complex commercial litigation.” She was “lead counsel in more than 500 federal appeals – 350 of them as an Assistant United States Attorney and Appellate Section Chief in the Western and Northern Districts of Texas.” She has served as president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit. She is a member of the American Law Institute. She certainly has the credentials to be powerful!


            Powell used her knowledge and experience to become the author of LICENSED TO LIE: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice. She wrote the book after she watched “a core group of federal prosecutors break all the rules, make up crimes, hide evidence, and send innocent people to prison.” In her book, she “names the prosecutors who then rose to positions of great power and the judges who turned a blind eye to their abuses of unfettered power.” She also writes about “government misconduct and prosecutorial misconduct” for various outlets.


            As if being a powerful attorney and author were not enough, Powell “speaks often at local and national events, for non-profits and business associations, at CPAC, TPUSA, and other political symposiums, and at colleges and universities.” She is also a media figure who is “highly sought to comment on current legal issues and government investigations” including the Mueller investigation of Trump. She appears on numerous television and radio programs.