前特朗普律师、自称“北海巨妖释放者”的西德尼·鲍威尔(Sidney Powell)告诉潜在捐助者，她的组织“捍卫共和国”是一个保护美国领土完整的合法国防基金。选举南
但是，该公司起诉鲍威尔对操纵总统选举的毫无根据的指控，称她的社会福利组织的真正受益者是鲍威尔本人。
自治领投票系统声称鲍威尔袭击了保卫共和国的金库，以支付个人法律费用，引用了她自己在电台采访中的言论。这家位于丹佛的投票技术供应商起诉鲍威尔和其他散布虚假声明的人，称该公司帮助窃取了2020年的选举唐纳德·特朗普。
“现在，鲍威尔试图滥用她为自己的律师事务所和筹款网站创建的公司形式，隐藏她通过诽谤活动筹集的资金，保护这些资金免受受到诽谤活动伤害的公司的影响，”自治领律师在5月5日的法庭文件中写道。
这场争论揭示了特朗普的盟友如何继续支持、传播关于2020年选举欺诈的谎言，并据称从中获利。尽管选举已经结束，所有主要的法庭挑战都被驳回，鲍威尔的法律辩护基金在像卡农追随者这样具有阴谋思想的支持者的帮助下，继续筹集资金。
她的团队将从门票销售中获得一部分收入阵亡将士纪念日该活动的网站称，周末在达拉斯举行的会议名为“为了上帝和国家爱国者综述”。一些极右翼阴谋论的主要传播者是头条新闻人物，包括鲍威尔、支持特朗普的律师林·伍德和前国家安全顾问迈克尔·T·弗林。
活动组织者约翰·萨巴勒拒绝解释为鲍威尔的非营利组织(也称为DTR)提供财政支持的决定，但表示这笔钱不是为了她的个人利益。
“据我所知，DTR受益于许多不同的事业。这些我就不说了，但你可以和她谈谈，”他说。
鲍威尔没有回应采访请求，但她的一名律师说，她否认自治领的指控。鲍威尔的律师霍华德·克莱因汉德勒(Howard Kleinhendler)说，鲍威尔的个人法律费用由她的医疗事故载体支付，她的非营利组织有一个适当的公司结构和董事会。
“她对其资金或资金的使用没有不受约束的控制，”克莱因汉德勒在一封电子邮件中写道。“DTR打算在到期时遵守所有联邦和州的申报要求。到那时，你和世界其他地方的人都会看到必要的财务状况。”
特朗普和他的盟友在多个州就选举提起了50多起诉讼，每次都失败了。鲍威尔和鲁迪·朱利安尼是这些案件的幕后律师，他们声称民主党人实施了阴谋，尽管共和党州领导人、特朗普自己的司法部长和其他政府官员公开表示没有重大选举欺诈。鲍威尔和朱利安尼一起出现在新闻发布会上，并多次在电视上露面。
但在鲍威尔威胁要用一份“圣经”法庭文件“炸毁”格鲁吉亚后，特朗普的法律团队与她保持距离，称她没有代表他们工作。她后来评论了她将如何释放“北海巨妖”，这显然是指电影“泰坦之战”，宙斯下令释放神话中的海怪。
在11月的一次采访中，鲍威尔指出，她不是由特朗普竞选团队支付报酬，而是由“美利坚合众国人民”支付报酬。
达拉斯会议的门票一般为500美元，贵宾通行证为1000美元。该活动的网站没有列出其他受益人的姓名，也没有具体说明鲍威尔的非营利组织获得了多少资金。会议的大部分本来应该在一个叫做吉利达拉斯的综合大楼举行，但萨巴勒说，在新闻报道了活动的QAnon连接之后，会场取消了他的预订。
QAnon的追随者认为，特朗普一直在秘密打击一个崇拜撒旦的“深层国家”敌人阴谋集团、著名的民主党人和好莱坞精英，他们经营着一个儿童色情贩运团伙。
洛根·应变(Logan Strue)是一名阴谋论研究人员，他是“QAnon匿名”播客的联合主持人，他说鲍威尔曾出现在QAnon推广者的YouTube频道上，在QAnon的追随者中被视为“共和国的英雄”。如果鲍威尔试图利用这场运动作为筹款来源，紧张也不会感到惊讶。
“推广和迎合卡农可以赚很多钱，”他说。“这就是为什么许多人从一开始就怀疑这是一种赚钱的骗局，至少在一定程度上是这样。”
保卫共和国自称为501(c)4非营利组织，但它没有被列入国税局的免税组织数据库。被国税局认定为501(c)(4)的团体免缴所得税，包括捐赠，但这些捐赠不能作为慈善捐赠免税。
鲍威尔的网站说，捐赠者可以将支票邮寄到佛罗里达州西棕榈滩的一个地址，该地址与联合包裹商店相对应。在同一地址下，保卫共和国公司于2月份在佛罗里达州的公司部门注册，是一家为“社会福利目的”而成立的非营利组织。
记录将特朗普轨道上的其他主要阴谋论者与鲍威尔的非营利组织联系起来。鲍威尔、伍德、弗林和弗林的兄弟约瑟夫在2020年12月提交给德克萨斯州国务卿办公室的文件中被任命为捍卫共和国的董事。
约瑟夫·弗林在一条短信中说，他不再是导演了，但拒绝解释原因。
弗林写道:“我们对与虚假新闻媒体对话不感兴趣。”。
伍德回忆说，鲍威尔曾要求他担任董事，但他说自己没有在非营利组织中做过任何工作。
“她没有跟我跟进这件事，”他说，
今年2月在佛罗里达州提交的公司章程将我的枕头创始人兼首席执行官迈克·林德尔列为董事。但是林德尔说，他在不到一周的时间里要求被解除《保卫共和国》的导演职务，因为他决定成立自己的法律辩护基金。林德尔也被自治领起诉。
“我自己去是因为我没有时间去做别人的事情。我想专注于我正在做的事情，”林德尔说。
捍卫共和国董事长兼首席执行官的是前Overstock首席执行官帕特里克·伯恩(Patrick Byrne)，他对“深度状态”的评论导致他在2019年从Overstock辞职。伯恩说，在任职不到一个月之后，他于4月辞去了捍卫共和国主席兼首席执行官的职务。
为了支持鲍威尔将非营利资金用于个人法律辩护的说法，道明引用了她在12月29日“拉什·林堡秀”上的讲话。鲍威尔告诉电台节目的嘉宾主持人，听众可以去她的网站向非营利组织捐款，“该组织正在努力帮助为所有这些案件辩护，并为我辩护，现在我正受到密歇根州和底特律市司法部长以及其他所有人的大规模攻击。”
密歇根州州长、司法部长和国务卿——都是民主党人——敦促德克萨斯州和密歇根州的州律师官员永久取消鲍威尔在选举诉讼中违反道德的律师资格。
与此同时，自治领的安全主管埃里克·库默(Eric Coomer)在科罗拉多州对她的律师事务所鲍威尔(Powell)和其他人提起了单独的诽谤诉讼。另一家投票技术公司——智能美国公司在纽约起诉鲍威尔伪造选举舞弊。
威斯康星州州长托尼·埃弗斯(Tony Evers)是一名民主党人，他要求联邦法院命令鲍威尔和其他质疑威斯康星州选举结果的律师支付10.6万美元的州诉讼费。鲍威尔称这是一个无聊的请求。法官尚未解决争议。
1月8日，道明在联邦法院起诉鲍威尔，要求她、她的律师事务所和她的筹款网站赔偿13亿美元。该公司声称，鲍威尔将“保卫共和国”视为她的个人资金，将其转到她控制和支配的律师事务所...抢劫他们来支付她个人的法律辩护费用。”
根据税法第501(c)(4)节组织的非营利组织，如保卫共和国所声称的，可以从事一些政治活动，只要这不是它的主要活动。与政治委员会不同，免税社会福利团体不必披露捐赠者。据国税局发言人说，通知国税局一个团体打算作为501(c)(4)运作的表格不是公共记录。
芝加哥洛约拉大学的税法教授塞缪尔·布伦森说，国税局禁止501(c)(4)团体为私人利益花钱。他补充说，这样做可能会危及其免税地位。
“总的来说，国税局对它的监管并不严密，”布伦森说。
Company: Ex-Trump lawyer raiding nonprofit for personal use
Former Trump attorney and self-proclaimed “Kraken releaser” Sidney Powell has told prospective donors that her group, Defending the Republic, is a legal defense fund to protect the integrity of U.S.elections.
But the company suing Powell over her baseless claims of a rigged presidential election says the true beneficiary of her social welfare organization is Powell herself.
Dominion Voting Systems claims Powell has raided Defending the Republic's coffers to pay for personal legal expenses, citing her own remarks from a radio interview. The Denver-based voting technology vendor sued Powell and others who spread false claims that the company helped steal the 2020 election fromDonald Trump.
“Now, Powell seeks to abuse the corporate forms she created for her law firm and fundraising website to hide funds that she raised through her defamatory campaign, shielding those funds from the very company that was harmed by the defamatory campaign,” Dominion lawyers wrote in a May 5 court filing.
The dispute shines a light on how Trump allies continue to support, spread and allegedly profit from lies about fraud in the 2020 election. Although the election is settled, and all major court challenges have been dismissed, Powell's legal defense fund continues to raise money, with help from conspiracy-minded supporters like QAnon adherents.
Her group will receive a cut of proceeds from ticket sales for aMemorial Dayweekend conference in Dallas called the "For God & Country Patriot Roundup," the event's website says. Some leading purveyors of far-right conspiracy theories are headliners, including Powell, pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood and former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn.
Event organizer John Sabal, known as “QAnon John" to followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, declined to explain the decision to financially support Powell's nonprofit, also known as DTR, but said the money isn't for her personal benefit.
“As far as I know, DTR is benefiting a bunch of different causes. Those I will not speak on, but you can talk to her about that,” he said.
Powell didn't respond to interview requests, but one of her attorneys said she denies Dominion’s accusations. Powell's personal legal bills are covered by her malpractice carrier, and her nonprofit has a proper corporate structure with a board of directors, said her lawyer, Howard Kleinhendler.
“She does not have unfettered control over its funds or how the funds are spent," Kleinhendler wrote in an email. “DTR intends to comply with all federal and state filing requirements when they are due. At that time you as well as the rest of the world will see the necessary financials.”
Trump and his allies filed more than 50 lawsuits in multiple states over the election and lost at every turn. Powell and Rudy Giuliani were among the lawyers behind the cases claiming a conspiracy by Democrats, despite Republican state leaders, and Trump’s own attorney general and other administration officials, publicly stating there was no major election fraud. Powell appeared with Giuliani at a press conference and made multiple TV appearances.
But after Powell threatened to “blow up” Georgia with a “biblical” court filing, the Trump legal team distanced itself from her, saying she was not working on their behalf. She later made the comment on how she would release “the Kraken," an apparent reference to the film “Clash of the Titans” in which Zeus gives the order to release the mythical sea monster.
In a November interview, Powell noted she was not being paid by the Trump campaign but "by the people of the United States of America.”
Tickets for the Dallas conference cost $500 for general admission and $1,000 for VIP passes. The event's website doesn't name other beneficiaries or specify how much money goes to Powell's nonprofit. Much of the conference was supposed to be held at a complex called Gilley’s Dallas, but Sabal said the venue canceled his booking after news coverage of the event’s QAnon connections.
QAnon followers believe Trump has been secretly fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping "deep state" enemies, prominent Democrats and Hollywood elites operating a child sex trafficking ring.
Logan Strain, a conspiracy theory researcher who co-hosts the “QAnon Anonymous” podcast, said Powell has appeared on QAnon promoters' YouTube channels and is viewed as a “hero of the republic” among QAnon followers. It wouldn't surprise Strain if Powell is trying to harness the movement as a fundraising source.
“There is a great deal of money to be made in promoting and catering to QAnon,” he said. “This is why a lot of people suspected it was sort of a money-making grift, at least in part, from the beginning.”
Defending the Republic describes itself as a 501(c)4 nonprofit, but it isn’t listed in an IRS database of tax-exempt organizations. Groups recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(4) are exempt from paying taxes on income, including donations, but those donations aren't tax deductible as charitable contributions.
Powell's website says donors can mail checks to an address in West Palm Beach, Florida, that corresponds with a UPS Store. Under the same address, Defending the Republic Inc. registered in February with Florida's Division of Corporations as a nonprofit formed for “social welfare purposes.”
Records link other leading conspiracy theorists from Trump's orbit to Powell's nonprofit. Powell, Wood, Flynn and Flynn's brother, Joseph, were named as directors of Defending the Republic in December 2020 filings with the Texas secretary of state’s office.
Joseph Flynn said in a text message that he's no longer a director but declined to explain why.
“We are not interested in talking to the fake news media,” Flynn wrote.
Wood recalls Powell asking him to serve as a director, but said he hasn't done any work on the nonprofit.
“She didn't follow up with me about it,” he said,
Articles of incorporation filed in Florida in February listed MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell as a director. But Lindell said he asked to be removed as a director of Defending the Republic after less than one week because he decided to form his own legal defense fund. Lindell is also being sued by Dominion.
“I went on my own because I don't have time for other people's stuff. I want to focus on what I’m doing," Lindell said.
Defending the Republic’s chairman and CEO was at one time former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, whose comments about the “deep state” led to his resignation from Overstock in 2019. Byrne says he resigned as Defending the Republic’s chairman and CEO in April after less than one month in the positions.
To support its claim that Powell is using nonprofit money for her personal legal defense, Dominion cited her remarks during a Dec. 29 appearance on “The Rush Limbaugh Show." Powell told the radio show's guest host that listeners could go to her website to donate to the nonprofit “that is working to help defend all these cases and to defend me now that I’m under a massive attack from the attorney general of Michigan and the city of Detroit and everything else."
Michigan’s governor, attorney general and secretary of state — all Democrats — have urged state bar officials in Texas and Michigan to permanently disbar Powell for ethical violations over election lawsuits.
Meanwhile, Eric Coomer, Dominion’s security director, has filed a separate defamation suit in Colorado against Powell, her law firm, Defending the Republic and others. Another voting technology firm, Smartmatic USA Corp., sued Powell in New York over her bogus election-fixing claims.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, asked a federal court to order Powell and other lawyers who challenged Wisconsin’s election results to cover $106,000 in state legal fees. Powell called it a frivolous request. A judge hasn't resolved the dispute yet.
Dominion sued Powell in federal court on Jan. 8, seeking over $1.3 billion in damages against her, her law firm and her fundraising website. The company claimed Powell treated Defending the Republic “as her personal funds, redirecting them to the law firm she controls and dominates ... and raiding them to pay for her personal legal defense.”
A nonprofit organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, as Defending the Republic claims to be, can engage in some political activities provided that's not its primary activity. Unlike political committees, tax-exempt social welfare groups don’t have to disclose donors. Forms notifying the IRS of a group's intent to operate as a 501(c)(4) aren't public records, according to an IRS spokesman.
Samuel Brunson, a tax law professor at Loyola University in Chicago, said the IRS bars 501(c)(4) groups from spending money for the benefit of private individuals. Doing that could jeopardize its tax-exempt status, he added.
“In general, the IRS doesn’t police it very closely,” Brunson said.
