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Former Trump Attorney Sidney Powell voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit on Tuesday which challenged President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
Powell's move means the last effort to allege voter fraud in Georgia officially ended just hours before Biden's inauguration on Wednesday. The other three suits challenging Georgia's election results included a filing by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a case by attorney Lin Wood and a suit filed by Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer and President Trump himself, all of which have been rejected.
Coined the "Kraken" suit, the 104-page suit is credited with spreading conspiracy theories and speculation that President Trump won the election. The suit, which contains a number of errors and little evidence was rejected by federal judges in Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin last month. Powell then appealed the dismissal of the case to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
With Powell dropping the lawsuit, no further cases remain challenging the certification of Biden's victory. The U.S. Supreme Court previously rejected calls from Trump to expedite hearings of lawsuits challenging the election results.
"The people trying to peddle lies to overturn our democracy have given up, and the duly-elected administration will be sworn in," Andrea Young, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia said to Newsweek. She confirmed there are no further cases challenging Georgia's election results and there were no objections to the presidential results when a joint session of Congress certified the election on Jan. 6.
"It signifies an end to the lies being peddled by these members of the bar," Young said. "The things that people said in press conferences were not said before the courts because they're not true."
Young added there was no legal precedent for Powell's actions and that Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger consistently stood for the integrity of the state's results of the election.
Powell's social media posts and language surrounding the case has inspired right-wing memes when she promised she would "release the Kraken." In other words, she would "expose" the unfounded beast of information in support of Trump's victory. QAnon supporters and conspiracy followers latched onto Powell's multi-page suit, which conjectured that tech, media and social media companies were working against Trump.
In one instance, the case made false claims about Dominion Voting Systems, which makes the voting machines used in Georgia. The company has since filed a lawsuit against Powell, accusing her of defamation.
Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani stated last month the attorney was no longer a member of the Trump legal team and that her "opinions" were associated with the legal effort to challenge the election results.
Biden is the first Democrat to win the vote in Georgia in 28 years. The swearing-in of Democratic Sens.-elect Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock on Inauguration Day will secure a Democratic-majority in the U.S. Senate. Young confirmed to Newsweek that Ossoff and Warnock's elections were certified today.
Powell's office did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment.
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