Ex-Asheville attorney, philanthropist Powell said to be co-conspirator in Trump indictment

An attorney once known in Asheville as an outspoken philanthropist who later became nationally known for far-fetched conspiracy theories is now widely believed to be an unnamed co-conspirator listed in the indictment of former President Donald Trump.

In the early 2000s while living in Buncombe County, Sidney Powell created a nonprofit to fund domestic violence prevention efforts, but almost 20 years later she sought to overturn Joe Biden's election through baseless lawsuits, espousing theories even Trump described as "crazy."

Speaking to the Citizen Times Aug. 3, two days after the unsealing of the indictment, Susan Fisher, a liberal former member of the state legislature from Asheville, said she has found herself shocked by the actions of a person she knew as charitable and kind.

"I only knew about her through her work in the community, and so it was really very puzzling to see this kind of turnabout," Fisher said.

The Citizen Times reached out to Powell.

In the indictment, the U.S. Department of Justice points to six people it says conspired with Trump to commit crimes against the country and its voters, including spurring the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. While the half-dozen so-called co-conspirators are not named, experts are fairly certain about the identities of five, such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and conservative attorney John Eastman.

"Co-Conspirator 3" is described as having filed a lawsuit against the governor of Georgia on Nov. 25, 2020, falsely alleging “massive election fraud” accomplished through voting machine software and hardware. Powell was one of four attorneys listed on that lawsuit, but the indictment also identified the co-conspirator as an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud Trump privately acknowledged to others sounded “crazy.”

Powell was among a group of attorneys who filed a wave of lawsuits in several states, pushing a false claim that an international cabal tried to steal the election away from Trump in Michigan and other states. Powell and others received federal sanctions from a Michigan judge, though they were recently overturned on appeal.

The indictment stated that even though Trump has said the ideas “sounded crazy,” he "embraced and publicly amplified" the disinformation. He "did this despite the fact that when he had discussed Co-Conspirator 3's far-fetched public claims regarding the voting machine company in private with advisors, the Defendant had conceded that they were unsupported and that Co-Conspirator 3 sounded ‘crazy.’”

Experts have said the conspirators were likely listed as a way of warning them of impending charges if they don't cooperate in the prosecution of Trump.

In Buncombe, Powell had two houses, according to property records, one in Biltmore Park in the city, and another in Biltmore Forest. A single mother, Powell had a son who went to Carolina Day and later Asheville School.

Once an assistant U.S. attorney in Texas, she went into private practice specializing in federal appeals. She moved to Buncombe as early as 2003, when she wrote a letter to the editor of the Citizen Times criticizing the prosecution of a woman, Linda Evans, for murder in a case she said was actually self-defense by a domestic violence victim.

That same year she helped start a Christmas charitable giving program at First Presbyterian Church where she was a member. The next year she co-founded the Genesis Alliance, raising tens of thousands of dollars annually to help women and children victims of domestic violence.

"We must start talking about the issue − to increase awareness, decrease incidents and to take the shame out of it for its victims," she told the Citizen Times.

Hellen Goldfarb, a legal assistant who worked with Powell and was shown as one of the last contacts for the nonprofit, did not return messages Aug. 3.

Later, Powell spoke before City Council and other organizations as a member of the Asheville Area Center for the Performing Arts, a group looking to build a new venue for music in the city.

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It was during that period that Powell attended some of Fisher's campaign events. A new legislator, Fisher was seen as one of the most liberal members of the General Assembly and said she remembered one event with a Cinco de Mayo theme where Powell brought her son who asked to have one of the piñata decorations.

"So I took it down and gave him a piñata. I mean, she was just very pleasant," Fisher said.

But in later years after Powell moved away around 2010, back to Texas, Fisher said she began what seemed to be a change.

"I noticed that she was writing books shortly after she lived here that had some sort of right-leaning conspiracy theories. And I was I was really, I was really puzzled," Fisher said.

In 2014, Powell was back in Asheville where she held a signing at Malaprops downtown for her nonfiction book, "Licensed to Lie: Exposing Corruption in the Department of Justice." The work was written after her defense of firms and executives involved in the Enron scandal and described itself as "The book that began exposing 'the Deep State,'" a common term later used by right-wing conspiracists.

While Powell appears to have moved from the area around 2010, she kept the houses for some years and was in the Biltmore Forest home in 2021 when she was served with a $1.3 billion defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox News, also named in the suit, settled with the company in April for $788 million.

Powell is still litigating the issue.

USA Today contributed to this report.

Joel Burgess has lived in WNC for more than 20 years, covering politics, government and other news. He's written award-winning stories on topics ranging from gerrymandering to police use of force. Got a tip? Contact Burgess at jburgess@citizentimes.com, 828-713-1095 or on Twitter @AVLreporter. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Sidney Powell said to be co-conspirator in Donald Trump indictment