Sidney Powell, who helped plot Arizona 'audit' and donated to it, pleads guilty in Georgia

Attorney Sidney Powell, who has pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts in a Georgia election conspiracy case, was deeply involved in launching the Arizona Senate's review of the 2020 presidential election results.

Powell also spearheaded a series of lawsuits in Arizona and three other battleground states after Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 presidential election. Her Arizona lawsuit alleged fraudulent activities, arguments that would later underpin many of the motives of the Senate's audit.

Powell's case in U.S. District Court in Phoenix was quickly dismissed, with the judge in late 2020 concluding the argument was “sorely wanting of relevant or reliable evidence.”

At the same time, Powell was involved in strategy sessions at the South Carolina plantation of attorney Lin Wood in the closing weeks of 2020, where the idea of state "audits" was born.

There, she huddled with other Trump advisers and met Doug Logan, whose firm, the Cyber Ninjas, eventually was hired by then-Arizona Senate President Karen Fann to conduct the audit.

Although dubbed an audit, the exercise actually was a recount of the 2 million ballots cast in Maricopa County's presidential and U.S. Senate races in 2020.

How much did it cost? Taxpayer bill continues to climb nearly three years after Arizona Senate 'audit.' Here's how

Documents The Arizona Republic obtained from an ongoing public records lawsuit showed Logan frequently referenced Powell in his numerous communications with many people involved in the "Stop the Steal" movement. It's unclear whether Logan directly texted her because Logan has refused to release all of the documents that he has been ordered by a judge to disclose.

Powell also helped fundraise for the Senate's ballot review, which relied on private donations because the Senate's only initial financial commitment was $150,000.

Documents show Powell's nonprofit, Defending The Republic, donated $550,000 to the review.

Arizona Senate ballot review

The ballot review concluded in 2021. It found Joe Biden actually received more votes in Maricopa County than the official results showed but also outlined a number of election procedures that merited further investigation.

That investigation went nowhere after being sent to then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich. He never released a final report, but records released earlier this year by his successor, Kris Mayes, showed Brnovich's staff in March 2022 said they could not find evidnece of widespread fraud.

Who is Sidney Powell?

Powell, 68, started her career as an assistant U.S. attorney in Texas. She later moved into defense work, including her representation of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn when the federal government sued him in 2020 for lying to the FBI about his contacts with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States.

Powell joined Trump's legal team in the wake of the 2020 election. In media appearances and in her early involvement in efforts to overturn the election results, she asserted, without proof, that Trump had won and that rampant fraud denied him victory.

"I'm going to release the Kraken," Powell said in a Fox Business Network interview in November 2020, when she charged that big-tech executives, media outlets and Silicon Valley people had perpetrated the fraud.

The Kraken is a reference to a mythical sea monster from Scandinavian folklore who was so powerful it could destroy ships and drag seamen to their death. Powell's quote immediately circulated on Twitter. Seattle's National Hockey League Team adopted the name when it formed in 2021.

In January 2021, Dominion Voting Systems sued Powell as well as attorney Rudy Giuliani for defamation after they repeatedly claimed that the firm's voting and tabulation machines were rigged. The case is ongoing.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads as well as on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @maryjpitzl.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sidney Powell pushed election conspiracies in Arizona, pleads guilty in Georgia