Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
- Attorney Sidney Powell was spotted by reporters leaving the White House on Sunday.
- Powell was there to advocate for an executive order that would allow for voting machines to be seized and examined, the Times said.
- It’s not clear if President Donald Trump supports the idea. But during a meeting on Friday, he reportedly discussed naming Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud.
- Powell has spread baseless conspiracy theories about the election for months, with judges dismissing her legal challenges in key battleground states.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Attorney Sidney Powell was spotted leaving the White House Sunday, there to advocate for an executive order that would allow for voting machines to be collected and examined, The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported.
CNN White House Correspondent Jeremy Diamond said he saw Powell leaving the residence side of the White House, though she told him she did not meet with President Donald Trump.
It is not clear if the president is interested in Powell’s executive order pitch, but Haberman said the president’s staff has told him it’s not a legally valid option.
The White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
The Times had previously reported that the idea of collecting voting machines was floated during a tense White House meeting on Friday, where Powell was also present and clashed with Trump’s advisers.
During that meeting, Trump reportedly discussed naming Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud, though most of his advisers did not support the idea.
The suggestion marked a reversal from last month, when Trump campaign lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis distanced themselves from Powell, saying she was "practicing law on her own" and not part of the campaign team.
Powell has pushed election conspiracy theories for months. One of her central claims is that software used in some states' elections was manipulated to "flip" votes for Trump to President-elect Joe Biden. There is no evidence this occurred, and Dominion Voting Systems, the company behind the software, is threatening to sue her for defamation if she does not retract her allegations.
Powell asserted this claim about the voting software in election lawsuits she filed in key swing states won by Biden, seeking to have the results in those states overturned.
Her lawsuits, dubbed by her as releasing the "Kraken," were dismissed in Arizona, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Michigan, with one judge saying the allegations were "sorely wanting of relevant or reliable evidence."
A small but increasing number of Republicans have acknowledged Trump lost the election, some only after the Electoral College vote last week formalized Biden's victory.
But the president has refused to concede and continues to assert baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. Trump's campaign and allies have accrued a string of legal defeats in an attempt to subvert the election, including a Supreme Court decision to reject a Texas bid to overturn the results.
The campaign's latest election challenge, filed Sunday, asks the US Supreme Court to toss more than 110,000 mail-in ballots that were cast in accordance with state law.