Sidney Powell Says Pence Should Reject Electoral Votes From Disputed States

Sidney Powell speaks at a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington on Nov 19, 2020. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Attorney Sidney Powell told FlashPoint host Gene Bailey in a Dec. 29 interview that Vice President Mike Pence should reject Electoral College votes from states facing legal challenges on grounds of alleged election and voter fraud.

“Vice President Pence should simply refuse to accept the illegal electors—the electors from the states in which there was demonstrable, significant fraud,” Powell said. “And if he does that, then it would have to go for President [Donald] Trump.”

The power of the vice president to reject electoral votes is disputed.

Powell was responding to a series of questions by Bailey about the “viable paths” that remain to a second term for President Donald Trump. In the interview, Powell said she believes it is “definitely possible” that Trump retains the presidency for a second term.

Powell also spoke of a lawsuit filed against Pence that requested the court to grant him “the exclusive authority and sole discretion in determining which electoral votes to count for a given State” during the joint session of Congress, when the Electoral College votes will be considered, counted, and certified by lawmakers.

A court on Friday rejected that lawsuit, with U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle writing in an order of dismissal (pdf) that plaintiffs lack standing to bring the legal action that could keep Pence from confirming [Democrat presidential candidate Joe] Biden’s electoral victory.

Some Republican lawmakers have said they plan to object to the Congressional certification of the electoral votes on Jan. 6. For the attempt to be viable, it would require both the Democrat-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate to agree to discard the electoral votes and, if neither candidate receives the 270 votes needed for victory, potentially force a contingent election under the 12th Amendment. Under a contingent election scenario, state delegates in the House—one from each state—vote for president, with Republicans having a majority in the House when counted by the number of states.

In the interview, Powell was then asked whether she thinks the contingent election scenario would be a possibility for a second term for Trump, to which she replied: “I think the possibility is that he [Pence] has the actual ability to select the president himself by virtue of disregarding the illegal electors.”

Powell also called on voters in key battleground states to appeal to their state legislators to convene in emergency sessions and decertify the electoral votes for Biden.

State election officials, the Department of Justice, and others have pushed back against claims of voter fraud of a significant enough scale to overturn the results of the 2020 election.