Donald Trump-allied "Kraken" lawyer Sidney Powell is asking a federal judge to put the lawsuit against her by voting equipment company Smartmatic on hold so she can defend against her criminal charges in Georgia, reported Law & Crime on Tuesday.
In her filing, Powell argued that she would face a "significant dilemma" if she had to defend against both a civil defamation suit and criminal racketeering charges at the same time.
Powell extensively promoted conspiracy theories about the election both in lawsuits to stop the electoral count and Fox News appearances, and Smartmatic lawyers claim she damaged its reputation by doing so. At one point she cited as evidence of election fraud testimony from a woman who claimed to have gotten the information from "time travel."
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Despite all of this, Powell reportedly wanted Trump to appoint her to a special counsel role to investigate fraud in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, and he came very close to signing off on it.
Smartmatic, one of the voting equipment vendors focused on by unsubstantiated theories of fraud, is suing Powell, as well as mounting a $2.7 billion suit against Fox News, which recently had to pay out a $787.5 million settlement to Dominion Voting Systems for false claims spread about its equipment.
She's also a Trump co-defendant in the case involving alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election result in Georgia.
She is known as the "Kraken lawyer" because she used the word to describe her lawsuit that would destroy Joe Biden's claim to the presidency. A Kraken is a fictional sea monster that rises from the sea floor to devour its enemies.
Like several other Trump-allied attorneys, Powell also faced a disbarment complaint, although it was dismissed earlier this year by a judge in Texas.
