西德尼·鲍威尔可能不再是唐纳德·特朗普总统的官方认可的法律团队，但这位已经成为毫无根据的全球阴谋论的拥护者的资深诉讼律师，在说服联邦法院系统扭转2020年选举。
鲍威尔本周在推特上写道:“我们会胜利的。”。"爱国者前所未有地团结在一起，将真理之光照耀我们的土地."
据该团队的另一名律师称，自上周在佐治亚州提起诉讼以来，鲍威尔已在密歇根州提起联邦诉讼，并计划在威斯康星州再次提起诉讼。每起案件都声称有一个复杂的阴谋，涉及可疑的外国利益集团、销售电子投票机的公司、共和党当选官员和民主党投票工作人员——据称所有人都在合谋从特朗普手中窃取选举。
这一努力赢得了特朗普对鲍威尔的公开赞扬，并使她成为互联网阴谋角落的女英雄。这也招致了两党官员的嘲笑，特朗普的长期盟友克里斯·克里斯蒂称这一法律努力是“国家的尴尬”。民主党当选总统乔·拜登的助手称之为“杂耍”
处于鲍威尔索赔中心的公司——自治领投票系统公司(Dominion Voting Systems)——上周发表声明称，它打算让鲍威尔“以及那些帮助和教唆她的欺诈行为的人，对由此可能造成的任何损害负责。”两党的选举法支持者说，即使她的案子如他们预期的那样被迅速驳回，他们也不是闹着玩的。
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“这些策略并不好笑，”无党派布伦南正义中心选举改革项目副主任丹尼尔·韦纳说。“他们对我们民主的完整性造成了真正的损害，因为他们在选举过程中播下了疑虑。”
当被美国广播公司问及批评者认为她在破坏民主和推行阴谋时，鲍威尔回答说:“胡说八道和胡说八道。”
现在说联邦法院将如何处理这些案件还为时过早。基于类似主张的案件因缺乏证据而被州和联邦法官迅速而坚决地驳回。然而，佐治亚州的一名法官周末同意了鲍威尔一案，裁定在法院审理是否允许鲍威尔的团队对电子投票机进行分析的争议期间，州选举官员不得改变电子投票机。
布伦南中心投票权和选举项目主任米尔纳·佩雷斯说:“你可以称之为胜利，因为他们要求法院让他们再活一天，但这与其说是胜利，不如说是停滞不前。”
民主党人周一要求同一名法官彻底驳回该案，称该诉讼只是对先前尝试并失败的阴谋论的“加倍”。
民主党人在提交给法院的文件中写道:“尽管人们普遍承认没有发生欺诈行为，但全国各地和格鲁吉亚都提起了各种诉讼，试图制造混乱，质疑选举的合法性。”“原告试图在本案中恢复这些被驳回的索赔...然而，他们的说法被进一步美化，一个更大的所谓阴谋从美国的各个角落蔓延到全球。”
在密歇根州，法官还没有对诉讼采取行动，就像在佐治亚州一样，要求一些长期的补救措施。其中包括:法院取消选举结果的认证，而是证明特朗普是获胜者——基于阴谋指控，他们说这相当于“欺诈性地操纵投票数以选举乔·拜登为美国总统的“计划”。
与鲍威尔在佐治亚州提起的案件类似，密歇根州的指控基于目击者的几十份宣誓书，这些目击者声称，在没有确凿证据的情况下，他们目睹了计票过程的各个方面的欺诈活动，竞选活动被剥夺了观察这一过程的有意义的机会。该诉讼还依赖于自称的“专家分析师”的书面陈述，他们声称在结果中发现了“统计异常和数学不可能”。
这些宣誓书中的许多都是从密歇根州的其他案件中回收的，这些案件后来被拒绝或撤回。
与鲍威尔一起处理此案的一名律师告诉美国广播公司新闻，他们对自己在密歇根州的机会“感到满意”，尽管特朗普或他的盟友提起的选举诉讼没有一项在该州取得成功。至少另外四人已经提出申请，随后被拒绝或撤回。
布伦南中心的佩雷斯说，这些案件几乎不可能有任何进展，对于谁真正在推动这项工作，他们提出的问题比答案还多。
“这是非常非常有害的，但是谁在鼓励这种事情发生呢?结局是什么?”佩雷斯说。“在这一点上，这是一种筹资策略，它正在制造不和。”
Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell still pushing conspiracy-filled election lawsuits
Sidney Powell may no longer be part ofPresident Donald Trump'sofficially sanctioned legal team, but the veteran litigator who has become a champion of unfounded global conspiracy theories has not slowed in her effort to persuade the federal court system to reverse the outcome of the2020 elections.
"We will prevail," Powell wrote on Twitter this week. "Patriots are united like never before to shine the light of Truth across our land."
Since filing a suit in Georgia last week, Powell has added a federal lawsuit in Michigan and plans another in Wisconsin, according to another lawyer on the team. Each case alleges a complex plot involving shadowy foreign interests, the company that sells electronic voting machines, Republican elected officials, and Democratic poll workers -- all allegedly in cahoots to steal the election from Trump.
The effort has garnered Powell public praise from Trump and turned her into a heroine in the conspiratorial corners of the internet. It has also garnered ridicule from officials in both parties, with longtime Trump ally Chris Christie calling the legal effort a "national embarrassment." Aides to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden called it a "sideshow."
The company at the center of Powell's claims, Dominion Voting Systems, issued a statement last week saying it intends to hold Powell "and those aiding and abetting her fraudulent actions, accountable for any harm that may occur as a result." And election law advocates from both parties said that even if her cases are swiftly dismissed, as they expect them to be, they are no laughing matter.
"These tactics are not comical," said Daniel I. Weiner, deputy director of the Election Reform Program at the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice. "They are doing real damage to the integrity of our democracy because they are sowing doubts in the electoral process."
Asked by ABC News about the suggestion by critics that she is undermining democracy and pushing conspiracies, Powell replied, "Balderdash and horsefeathers."
It's too soon to say how the cases will be handled by the federal courts. Cases that have relied on similar claims have been swiftly and emphatically dismissed by state and federal judges as lacking in evidence. However a judge in Georgia over the weekend gave a nod to the Powell case, ruling that state elections officials could not alter electronic voting machines while the court hears arguments over whether to allow Powell's team to have them analyzed.
"You can call it a win in that they asked for the court to let them live another day, but it's not as much of a win as it is a standstill," said Myrna Perez, the director of the Brennan Center's Voting Rights and Elections Program.
Democrats on Monday asked the same judge to dismiss the case outright, arguing the suit merely "doubles down" on conspiracy theories previously tried and failed.
"Despite widespread acknowledgment that no fraud occurred, various lawsuits have been filed around the country and in Georgia in an attempt to sow confusion and cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election," the Democrats wrote in their court filing. "Plaintiffs seek to revive these rejected claims in this case ... [their] claims have been further embellished, however, with an even grander alleged conspiracy spanning the globe from all corners of the United States."
In Michigan, a judge has yet to act on the suit that, like in Georgia, asks for a number of long-shot remedies. Among them: that the court decertify the election results and instead certify Trump as the winner -- based on conspiratorial allegations they say amount to a "scheme" of "fraudulently manipulating the vote count to elect Joe Biden as President of the United States."
Similar to the case Powell brought in Georgia, the allegations in Michigan rest on dozens of affidavits from eyewitnesses who claim -- without corroborating evidence -- that they witnessed fraudulent activity in various aspects of the counting process and that the campaign was denied meaningful access to observe the process. The suit also relies on affidavits from self-described "expert analysts" who claim they found "statistical anomalies and mathematical impossibilities" in the results.
Many of these affidavits are recycled from other cases brought in Michigan that have since been denied or withdrawn.
A lawyer on the case alongside Powell told ABC News they "feel good" about their chances in Michigan, though none of the election lawsuits filed by Trump or his allies has seen success in the state. At least four others have been filed and subsequently denied or withdrawn.
Perez, from the Brennan Center, said the cases have almost no shot of going anywhere, and they raise more questions than answers about who is truly pushing the effort.
"It's very, very damaging, but who is the one encouraging this to happen? And what is the endgame?" said Perez. "It is, at this point, a fundraising strategy, and it's sowing discord."
