Trump personally blocked conspiracy-theorist lawyer Sidney Powell from becoming a White House special counsel, report says

• President Donald Trump has told Sidney Powell that he will not make her White House special counsel for investigating voter fraud in the 2020 election, The Daily Beast reported.
• At a meeting last Friday, Trump reportedly floated the idea of appointing Powell, and top aides including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had opposed it strongly.
• Powell, an attorney and conspiracy theorist, had been seen at the White House in the past fortnight, pitching Trump legal strategies.
• Giuliani confirmed the president's decision to oust Powell on Tuesday, telling The Daily Beast: "She is on her own."
• The Trump campaign distanced itself from Powell in November, with The New York Times reporting at the time that she was "too conspiratorial even for him [Trump]."

President Donald Trump personally blocked conspiracy-theorist lawyer Sidney Powell from becoming a White House special counsel, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday.

At a meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump had aired the idea of naming Powell as a special counsel to investigate election fraud, according to The New York Times.

The idea, however, did not sit well with White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump's longtime personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, The Times said.

Powell was also present at the "raucous" meeting, The Times said, and was accompanied by Trump's former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

Amid opposition to her appointment, Powell reportedly called Trump's aides "quitters."

However, Trump told Powell on Monday that he would not be making her special counsel, The Daily Beast reported.

It is not clear how the decision was made. Insider has contacted the White House and Powell for comment.

Giuliani confirmed the decision on Tuesday, telling The Daily Beast: "She is on her own."

On Tuesday, Powell told Fox News that she had been barred from interacting with Trump, according to Forbes.

Powell is best known for her wild conspiracy theories as to how the election was stolen from Trump - ideas which saw the Trump campaign's legal team distance itself from her in November.

As Insider's Josh Barro has reported, Powell has claimed that the election was stolen from Trump by factions from George Soros and the Clinton Foundation, to former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013), the country of Serbia, and "probably China."

She has also baselessly accused Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems, two companies that make voting equipment and software, of switching votes from Trump to President-elect Joe Biden.

She also cited Ron Watkins, a prominent figure in the QAnon conspiracy-theory movement, in an affidavit earlier this month.

Powell previously served as a lawyer for the Trump campaign, but was let go in mid-November, with sources telling The New York Times that Powell was "too conspiratorial even for him [Trump]."

Since Biden won the election Trump and his allies have claimed without evidence that the election was fraudulent. None of the Trump campaign's legal challenges seeking to overturn the 2020 presidential election result have been successful.

White House watchers had reported that Powell had been seen on the premises several times in the past fortnight.

Journalists who were at the White House on Sunday saw Powell leaving the building, with The New York Times reporting that she had been pitching Trump an executive order that would ostensibly allow him to seize voting machines.

On Tuesday, Powell retweeted a post that said she would indict a slew of people in relation to election fraud within weeks if she is appointed as a White House special counsel.

—Murray (@Rothbard1776) December 22, 2020

Despite opposition from Giuliani, Trump was taken with Powell and her ideas, The Times and The Daily Beast reported.

Even before she was denied the post by Trump on Monday, Giuliani had on several occasions publicly sought to distance the president from Powell and her views.

"Let me say definitively that Sidney Powell is not part of our legal team, she hasn't been for five weeks," Giuliani told the right-wing cable channel Newsmax on Monday.

"She is not a special counsel for the president, she does not speak for the president, nor does she speak for the administration. She speaks for herself."