Sidney Powell

[Tommy Carcetti]

A story I remember regarding Sidney Powell.

Back in mid-to-late November 2020, after the election had been called for Joe Biden but when the Trump team was first making waves about the "stolen" election, I recall a post on my Facebook feed. It wasn't from a friend, but rather one of those friend-of-friends. Obviously a big Trump supporter. Also a really terrible person in general, but that seems to go hand-in-hand with the prior fact.

Anyways, the post contained a picture of Sidney Powell, who I wasn't very familiar with, and an accompanying story from some right-wing source containing Powell's claims of a stolen election.

The post read something to the effect of (paraphrasing): "This is Sidney Powell. She's a highly respected attorney. If the things she's saying about the 2020 election aren't true, she could not only lose her law license, she could actually go to jail. So you have to ask yourself why would she ever put that all on the line and lie?"

Obviously, the last part was meant to be a rhetorical and not literal question, intended to insinuate that Powell would never say anything so important unless it was the God's honest truth.

And yet, here we are two and a half years later and Sidney Powell has:

1. Been proven to have spread lies about the 2020 election
2. Referred for discipline and potential disbarment in numerous jurisdictions
3. Identified as "Co-Conspirator Number 3" in the criminal indictment of Donald Trump, meaning she is at risk of being indicted herself.

Now the final question being asked remains, but it's no longer loaded or rhetorical; why would she put her reputation, career and freedom on the line to lie for Donald Trump?

[yardwork]

1. Sidney Powell has long-standing mental health issues, I think.

So do several other Trump-orbit attorneys, including Lin Wood and Giuliani.

But aside from that - and the fact that my opinion is worth less than two cents - it's not unusual that some people, some of whom are attorneys, choose unethical and even criminal behavior in order to make money.

The idea that a "well respected attorney" would never consider doing anything unethical is kind of funny, actually. There are plenty of unethical attorneys, doctors, tax accountants, etc. Trump has quite a stable of them.

[ITAL]

2. I think she's enough of a nut

That she legit didn't think she was spreading lies. She might be the only one who really thought all this stuff was true.

[Ocelot II]

3. The no-longer-rhetorical question of why Powell and a number of other lawyers

and other government officials and politicians would put their reputations, careers and freedom on the line to lie for and even to conspire to commit crimes with Donald Trump is still beyond my ability to answer. Psychologists will be studying this question for years - how does someone as obviously criminal and personally repulsive as TFG gather acolytes who will risk everything for him, even though they must have seen, over and over again, how he uses people and throws them away the minute they are no longer useful or cross him in the slightest way. I want to grab these people through my TV and yell, "WTF is wrong with you?"

Whatever you might think of James Comey otherwise, I think he nailed it in this opinion piece from a few years ago, in which he slammed Bill Barr for distorting the findings of the Mueller Report:

..Proximity to an amoral leader reveals something depressing. ... Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from. It takes character like Mr. Mattis’s to avoid the damage, because Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites.

It starts with your sitting silent while he lies, both in public and private, making you complicit by your silence. In meetings with him, his assertions about what “everyone thinks” and what is “obviously true” wash over you, unchallenged, as they did at our private dinner on Jan. 27, 2017, because he’s the president and he rarely stops talking. As a result, Mr. Trump pulls all of those present into a silent circle of assent...

From the private circle of assent, it moves to public displays of personal fealty at places like cabinet meetings. While the entire world is watching, you do what everyone else around the table does — you talk about how amazing the leader is and what an honor it is to be associated with him....

Next comes Mr. Trump attacking institutions and values you hold dear — things you have always said must be protected and which you criticized past leaders for not supporting strongly enough. Yet you are silent. Because, after all, what are you supposed to say? He’s the president of the United States. You feel this happening. It bothers you, at least to some extent. But his outrageous conduct convinces you that you simply must stay, to preserve and protect the people and institutions and values you hold dear. Along with Republican members of Congress, you tell yourself you are too important for this nation to lose, especially now.

You can’t say this out loud — maybe not even to your family — but in a time of emergency, with the nation led by a deeply unethical person, this will be your contribution, your personal sacrifice for America. You are smarter than Donald Trump, and you are playing a long game for your country, so you can pull it off where lesser leaders have failed and gotten fired by tweet. Of course, to stay, you must be seen as on his team, so you make further compromises. You use his language, praise his leadership, tout his commitment to values. And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/william-barr-testimony.html

[Merlot]

4. "And then you are lost. He has eaten your soul."

Was not expecting that from James Comey.

[Ocelot II]

5. I think there are some people who have been on the inside, who,

perhaps despite some other personal failings or flaws, saw the light and understood what a toxic force TFG really is. Comey is one of them; Michael Cohen is another (although it took a little time in the pokey for him to reflect on what he'd got himself into). Some just resigned and failed to speak out when it could have made a difference. Others, like Powell and Giuliani, have continued along for the ride, and those are the ones who'll get shoved off the bus and run over by it, their souls having long since been eaten.

[Merlot]

6. I think giuliani is motivated by ego

he wanted to be president, he exchanged that for the proximity to a president. It keeps him in the news and feeling relevant when by all accords he should have disappeared into the woodwork long ago, right after his failed attempt to hold onto the mayor of NY title longer than legal.

powell I had never heard of before, my guess is power hungry.

[Ocelot II]

8. Ego and liquor. I suspect Rudy has become a serious alcoholic.

Powell might actually be nuts.

[WhiteTara]

7. He speaks from personal experience. nt