Georgia elections chief strikes back against top critic

March 23, 2021
1 min read
Georgia elections chief strikes back against top critic

The Players: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger lashed out at lawyer Sidney Powell, who was an integral part of voter fraud claims against Georgia in the November election.

The Background: Powell is being sued for defamation in federal court by Dominion Voting Systems for her role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In her court filing, Powell said “no reasonable person would conclude” that her statements were “truly statements of fact.”

Raffensperger responded to the ideas expressed in Powell’s filing in a statement released on Tuesday.

Raffensperger’s Statement: You can read Raffensperger’s statement in its entirety below. Here is what the Georgia Secretary of State had to say.

Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell admitted in a filing in federal court that “no reasonable person would conclude that [her] statements were truly statements of fact.” Powell made the filing in response to a defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

“In the face of legal action, Sidney Powell admitted that her effort to make millions lying to the American people had no facts to begin with,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. “While the loss of the Senate due to her lies will have ramifications for years, I most sympathize with those who believed her in the first place and who she now considers not reasonable enough to realize she should not have been taken seriously.”

Powell made her admission in a filing in Dominion’s $1.3 billion lawsuit against her for defamation. Powell and her lawyers acknowledge regarding the allegedly defamatory statements regarding Dominion Voting Systems, “no reasonable person would conclude that [her] statements were truly statements of fact.” In other words, she does not consider those who believe her voter fraud claims “reasonable.”

The filing says that the claims Powell made in interviews on Fox News and Fox Business, and in a press conference at the Republican National Committee are not statements of fact. In particular, her claims “that she had evidence that the election result was the ‘greatest crime of the century if not the life of the world,’” or that Democrats “developed a computer system to alter votes electronically” would not be accepted by a “reasonable person” as “statements of fact.”

Powell and her lawyers go further, citing Dominion’s criticism that Powell’s claims were “wild accusations,” “outlandish claims,” “inherently improbable,” or “impossible” as evidence that “reasonable people would not accept such statements as fact but view them only as claims.”

Finally, Powell and her lawyers admit that her claims about voter fraud, stolen elections, or switched votes were “her opinions and legal theories” only.

-Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

About The Public Record: This article is part of an ongoing series highlighting statements by public officials called The Public Record, where we present recent quotes and actions of public officials or candidates. You may not be able to attend every public meeting or see every occasion where your representatives speak, but you still have a right to know what your representatives and those who hope to represent you have been saying.

“Because public men and women are amenable ‘at all times’ to the people, they must conduct the public’s business out in the open.” -Charles L. Weltner Sr., former Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court

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