On November 14, in the Tweet announcing that GIULIANI was to lead his Campaign legal efforts, the defendant also named SYDNEYPOWELL a private attorney who was fixated on voting machine claims, and JOSEPHDIGENOVA another private attorney. Two days later, on November 16, on the defendant’s behalf, executive assistant MOLLYMICHAEL sent SYDNEYPOWELL and other private attorneys an email, titled “From POTUS,” attaching a document containing bullet points critical of DOMINIONVOTING a company that manufactured voting machines used in certain states, and writing, “See attached- Please include as is, or alnost as is, in lawsuit. ” SYDNEYPOWELL responded nine minutes later. writing, “IT MUST GO IN ALL SUITS IN GA AND PA IMMEDIATELY WITH A FRAUD CLAIM THAT REQUIRES THE ENTIRE ELECTION TO BE SET ASIDE in those states and machines impounded for non-partisan professional inspection.”

On November 17, CHRISKREBS the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), publicly tweeted that a group of private election security experts concluded that claims of computer-based election fraud “either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent.”

Two days later, on November 19, GIULIANI, SYDNEYPOWELL, JOSEPHDIGENOVA and others held a press conference at the RNC headquarters, on behalf of the defendant and his Campaign. During it, SYDNEYPOWELL made false and factually impossible claims regarding DOMINIONVOTING and the integrity of the country’s election infrastructure.21 That night, Fox News television personality TUCKERCARLSON stated on air that because of SYDNEYPOWELL incendiary comments about voting machines, he had invited her on his television program. He further stated, “[b]ut she never sent us any evidence, despite a lot of requests, polite requests. Not a page. When we kept pressing, she got angry and told us to stop contacting her. When we checked with others around the Trump Campaign, people in positions of authority, they told us SYDNEYPOWELL has never given them any evidence either… she never demonstrated that a single actual vote was moved illegitimately by software from one candidate to another. Not one. “

The defendant saw his private attorneys’ RNC press conference and TUCKERCARLSON discussion of SYDNEYPOWELL and he acknowledged to JASONMILLER that SYDNEYPOWELL had appeared “unhinged” in the press conference. On November 20, the day after the press conference, the defendant made a similar comment to P7 and DANSCAVINO two White House staffers who also volunteered for his Campaign. In casual conversation after another meeting had ended, the defendant told P7 and DANSCAVINO that TUCKERCARLSON had eviscerated” or “destroyed” SYDNEYPOWELL. The defendant then had a call with SYDNEYPOWELL on speakerphone, while and P7 and DANSCAVINO listened in, and mentioned the TUCKERCARLSON segment to SYDNEYPOWELL. While SYDNEYPOWELL responded, the defendant placed the call on mute and to P7 and DANSCAVINO mocked and laughed at SYDNEYPOWELL called her claims crazy,” and made a reference to the science fiction series Star Trek when describing her allegations. In the same time period, when ERICHERSHMANN told the defendant that SYDNEYPOWELL claims were unreliable and should not be included in lawsuits, the defendant agreed that he had not seen anything to substantiate SYDNEYPOWELL allegations.

On November 22, notwithstanding the defendant’s Tweet from eight days prior announcing SYDNEYPOWELL involvement, GIULIANI issued a statement on behalf of the Campaign distancing the defendant from SYDNEYPOWELL. “SYDNEYPOWELL is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.” Nonetheless, the defendant continued to support and publicize SYDNEYPOWELL knowingly false claims. For example, within days of GIULIANI statement, the defendant promoted a lawsuit that SYDNEYPOWELL was about to file, tweeting on November 24, “BREAKING NEWS: @SYDNEYPOWELL says her lawsuit in Georgia could be filed as soon as tomorrow and says there’s no way there was anything but widespread election fraud. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs.” SYDNEYPOWELL filed a lawsuit the next day against the Governor of Georgia falsely alleging massive election fraud” accomplished through DOMINIONVOTING election software and hardware. The defendant again promoted the lawsuit in a Tweet. The lawsuit was dismissed within two weeks, on December 7.

On November 29, CHRISKREBS who was no longer the CISA Director, appeared on the television program 60 Minutes. CHRISKREBS stated that he was confident that the election had been secure and “that there was no manipulation of the vote on the machine count side.” In response, the defendant tweeted publicly about CHRISKREBS appearance: “@60Minutes never asked us for a comment about their ridiculous, one sided story on election security, which is an international joke. Our 2020 Election, from poorly rated DOMINIONVOTING to a Country FLOODED with unaccounted for Mail-In ballots, was probably our least secure EVER!” A few days later, JOSEPHDIGENOVA appeared on a radio program as the defendant’s agent and said that because of CHRISKREBS comments to promote confidence in the security of the election infrastructure, CHRISKREBS “should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.” Thereafter, CHRISKREBS was subjected to death threats. In a press conference on December 1 that the defendant acknowledged watching, GABRIELSTERLING a Georgia election official, decried JOSEPHDIGENOVA and the defendant’s public statements spreading disinformation and said that if they did not stop, “someone is going to get killed.”

On December 1, Attorney General WILLIAMBARR stated publicly that the Justice Department had not seen evidence of fraud sufficient to change the election results.38 With respect to voting machines, he said, “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that.” GIULIANI and JENNAELLIS immediately issued a formal Campaign statement attacking WILLIAMBARR and the Justice Department, writing, “With all due respect to the Attorney General, there hasn’t been any semblance of a Department of Justice Investigation his opinion appears to be without any knowledge or investigation of the substantial irregularities and evidence of systemic fraud.”

In mid-December, the defendant spoke with RNC Chairwoman RONNAMCDANIEL and asked her to publicize and promote a private report that had been released on December 13 that purported to identify flaws in the use of DOMINIONVOTING machines in Antrim County, Michigan.

RONNAMCDANIEL refused, telling the defendant that she already had discussed the report with LEECHATFIELD Michigan’s Speaker of the House, who had told her that the report was inaccurate. RONNAMCDANIEL conveyed to the defendant LEECHATFIELD exact assessment: the report was “fucking nuts.”

On January 2, during the defendants call with Georgia Secretary of State RAFFENSPERGER said of false claims regarding voting machines, “I don’t believe that you’re really questioning the DOMINIONVOTING machines. Because we did a hand re-tally, a 100 percent re-tally of all the ballots, and compared them to what the machines said and canme up with virtually the same result. Then we did the recount, and we got virtually the same result. So I guess we can probably take that off the table.” In response, the defendant falsely claimed that in other states, we think we found tremendous corruption with DOMINIONVOTING machines, but we’ll have to see.”

At the Ellipse on January 6, the defendant and co-conspirators who spoke at the rally continued to make unsubstantiated and false claims about DOMINIONVOTING machines. GIULIANI claimed that in the U.S. Senate run-off election in Georgia the day before, “the votes were deliberately changed by the same algorithm that was used in cheating President Trump and Vice President Pence ” JOHNEASTMAN continued the false attack: We now know because we caught it live last time in real time, how the machines contributed to that fraud.. .. They put those ballots in a secret folder in the machines sitting there waiting, until they know how many they need. And then the machine after the close of polls, we now know who’s voted. And we know who hasn’t. And I can now in that machine match those unvoted ballots with an unvoted voter and put them together in the machine…. We saw it happen in real time last night and it happened on November 3rd as well.” In his own speech, the defendant again raised the false specter of “the highly troubling matter of DOMINIONVOTING and lied about machines flipping votes from the defendant to Biden and an astronomical and astounding’ error rate in the machines’ ballot scanning.