唐纳德·特朗普总统发起了旨在推翻2020年大选的多项诉讼-所有失败之后-希德尼·鲍威尔（Sidney Powell）律师从他的法律团队中被裁减-但特朗普现在已经欢迎有阴谋意识的喷火器返回白宫，以计划进一步的努力扩大他的总统职位。
美国广播公司新闻证实，特朗普和鲍威尔星期五晚上在椭圆形办公室会面，特朗普的前国家安全顾问，退休的迈克尔·弗林中将也加入了该行，后者一直公开敦促特朗普采取空前的步骤来夺取第二任期- -包括宣布戒严令和命令军方监督特朗普失利的战场上的新选举。
弗林本周早些时候在保守派新闻媒体Newsmax上说： “特朗普可能拥有军事能力，他可以将其部署在那些州，并基本上在每个州重新举行选举。”
评论家在周五的会议上表示震惊，该会议最初由《纽约时报》报道。华盛顿看门狗组织公民与道德规范负责人Noah Bookbinder告诉美国广播公司新闻，椭圆形办公室讨论中提出的想法将代表“滥用权力”，并且“是错误的，必须受到谴责”。
Bookbinder说：“特朗普总统继续企图推翻选举结果，已经对我们的民主稳定以及美国人民对其的信念造成了不可估量的损害。” “在弗林建议特朗普实施戒严令以武力推翻选举将威胁提升到一个新水平之后，总统欢迎迈克尔·弗林来到白宫。”
批评人士认为，鲍威尔的重返可能会给特朗普总统带来黑暗的最后一章，而这一前景引发了特朗普最受信任的几位顾问的明确反对-包括他的私人律师鲁迪·朱利安尼（Rudy Giuliani），否则他将焦头烂额地参加选举。
鲍威尔重新出现在特朗普的角落正好是她职业生涯的不稳定时期，因为她推翻选举的许多目标已经开始推迟。上周，科罗拉多州投票机公司Dominion Voting Systems向边缘的亲特朗普势力以人为操纵的选举的黑暗阴谋理论为目标，如果鲍威尔不撤回所谓的“狂野的，毫无根据的，她针对他们提出的虚假指控。
尽管如此，特朗普还是邀请鲍威尔考虑是否有可能任命鲍威尔为一名特别顾问，并获得高层安全检查，以调查2020年的选举。消息人士告诉美国广播公司新闻，会议充满争议，鲍威尔尖叫和要求，鲍威尔称其他特朗普助手放弃战斗是“戒烟”。
消息人士说，会议以白宫办公厅主任马克·梅多斯（Mark Meadows），白宫法律顾问Pat Cipollone和其他特朗普检察官结束而表示，总统拒绝提出要约。消息人士称，通过电话参加会议的朱利安尼也反对这一想法。
鲍威尔没有立即回应美国广播公司新闻的置评请求。
鲍威尔对特朗普的吸引力似乎是她愿意探索被揭穿，绕线缠绕的阴谋理论，这表明外国演员与美国深度州密谋为前副总统乔·拜登操纵选举机器。消息人士称，在周五的会议上，该集会集团考虑了一项行政命令，以在全国范围内扣押和审查投票机。
had cut attorney Sidney Powell from his legal team after she launched multiple lawsuits aimed at overturning the 2020 election -- all failures -- but Trump has now welcomed the conspiracy-minded flamethrower back into the White House to plot out further efforts to extend his presidency.
Trump and Powell met in the Oval Office Friday night, ABC News has confirmed, and were joined by Trump's former national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has been publicly prodding Trump to take unprecedented steps to seize a second term -- including declaring martial law and ordering the military to oversee new elections in the battleground states that Trump lost.
"[Trump] could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states," Flynn said earlier this week on the conservative news outlet Newsmax.
Critics expressed alarm at Friday's meeting, which was first reported by The New York Times. Noah Bookbinder, who heads the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told ABC News that the ideas raised in the Oval Office discussions would represent an "abuse of power" and were "wrong and must be condemned."
"President Trump's continued attempts to overturn the results of the election have done immeasurable damage to the stability of our democracy and to the American people's faith in it," Bookbinder said. "The president welcoming Michael Flynn to the White House right after Flynn suggested Trump impose martial law to overturn the election by force takes the threat to a new level."
Critics contend that Powell's return could usher in a dark final chapter to the Trump presidency, and the prospect has prompted pointed objections from several of Trump's most trusted advisers -- including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who has otherwise endorsed a scorched-earth effort to contest the elections.
And Powell's re-emergence in Trump's corner comes at a precarious time for her own career, as many of the targets of her drive to overturn the election have begun to push back. Last week, Dominion Voting Systems, the Colorado voting machine company that fringe pro-Trump forces have targeted with dark conspiracy theories of a rigged election, threatened Powell with legal action if she didn't retract what it called the "wild, knowingly baseless, and false" allegations she has made against them.
Nevertheless, Trump invited Powell to consider the possibility that she be appointed a special counsel and be given high-level security clearances to investigate the 2020 election. The meeting was highly contentious, sources told ABC News, filled with screaming and demands from Powell, who called other Trump aids "quitters" for giving up the fight.
The meeting ended with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and other Trump attorneys talking the president out of making the offer, the sources said. Giuliani, who joined the meeting by phone, also opposed the idea, according to sources.
Powell did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
Powell's allure to Trump appears to be her willingness to explore debunked, stem-winding conspiracy theories suggesting that foreign actors plotted with an American deep state to rig election machines for former Vice President Joe Biden. During Friday's meeting, a source said, the assembled group pondered an executive order to seize and examine voting machines across the country.
