WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has named Sidney Powell, a lawyer who was booted out of the campaign’s legal team after he put forward baseless conspiracy theories., Became a special adviser investigating allegations of voter fraud when Straw wanted to stay in power.

During a meeting Friday at the White House, Trump went so far as to discuss obtaining Powell’s security clearance, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversation.

The fact that Trump is even enjoying the idea of ​​installing Powell underscores the utterly disappointing steps he took when he lost to Democrat Joe Biden in an attempt to change the November 3 election result. Allies such as former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and the president’s personal attorney present gossip about Trump’s plans and plans to stay in power.

It is unclear whether Trump wants to go ahead with his attempt to install Powell. Under federal law, the responsibility for appointing special councils rests with the US Attorney General, not the President. In the weeks since Trump’s defeat, Republicans, from Attorney General William Barr to governors and state election officials, have repeatedly stated that there is no evidence of massive voter fraud of any kind. Friday’s meeting was first reported by the New York Times.

In addition to losing the popular vote by more than 7 million votes, Trump defeated the Electoral College decisively to defeat Biden, with 306 election votes to 232.

Trump’s campaign and allies have now filed about 50 lawsuits alleging widespread vote fraud, with almost all dismissed or abandoned. Trump has failed before judges from both political parties, and some of the strongest discipline, including some he has appointed, comes from conservative Republicans. Decisions mocked by Trump – The Supreme Court also directed that two cases be taken up.

Without further legitimate legal assistance, Trump is exploiting allies for options as he refuses to acknowledge his losses.

That includes Giuliani, who persuaded Trump to seize voting machines at a meeting on Friday seeking evidence of fraud. However, the Department of Homeland Security said it had no authority to do so. It is not clear what it will achieve.

In an interview earlier this month, Barr told the Associated Press that “voting machines have been investigated by the Department of Justice and Homeland Security for claims that they were primarily designed to avoid election results … so far we have not proven anything.” “Paper ballots are also retained under federal law and are used to verify results, including in Georgia, where two votes are counted using paper-ballot backups.

Flynn, who recently apologized to Trump for lying to the FBI, went even further, suggesting that Trump could impose martial law and use the military to re-run the election. People familiar with the meeting said Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and White House attorney Pat Cipolon objected.

Although Powell was initially part of the president’s campaign legal team, they booted after a bizarre news conference with Giuliani, in which he made a number of allegations of electoral fraud, including the claim that election software had been created in Venezuela by “Chavez at the behest of Hugo” – the Venezuelan president who died in 2013.

In interviews and appearances, Powell continued to make misleading statements about the voting process, putting forward unsupported and complex conspiracy theories embodying communist regimes and vowing to file Georgia in the “Bible” court.

Trump’s team soon announced that they had severed ties with Powell. “They are not members of the Trump legal team. They are not lawyers in the president’s personal capacity, ”said Giuliani and another Trump lawyer, Jenna Ellis.

Powell’s specific target, Dominion Voting Systems, threatened to withdraw his “wild” and “knowingly unfounded” claims about the voting machine company and file a defamation suit.

Since severing ties with the campaign, the Conservative Attorney in Georgia, L.A. Powell is continuing his litigation with Trump along with Lynn Wood.

Powell and the White House did not respond to requests for comment Saturday.

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Lemaire reported from New York. Associated Press author Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.