Prominent lawyer Sidney Powell defends self against a $2.5 billion Smartmatic defamation lawsuit

Lawyer Sidney Powell, whose high-profile clients include former Trump adviser Michael Flynn, is defending her comments about Smartmatic while trying to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election and is asking the courts  to dismiss the $2.5 billion defamation suit the election-technology company has filed against her.

"Smartmatic’s desperate attempt to suggest I was a part of a civil conspiracy to harm the company is not only false but also still does not allow me to be sued in New York," Powell said Thursday in a statement. "Smartmatic fails to even remotely allege any way that I was a part of a conspiracy. And for the record, I was not."

Smartmatic alleging Powell defamed the company in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election by claiming its software was hacked and compromised and further alleging that the company was under the corrupt control of dictators from socialist countries.

After saying such statements about several election technology companies, former President Donald Trump distanced himself from Powell.

"Sidney Powell 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," Giuliani and another lawyer for Trump, Jenna Ellis, said in a statement in November, according to the Associated Press.

Smartmatic is also suing former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, Fox News and several of the cable TV network's hosts for statements they made in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

"Without any true villain, defendants invented one. Defendants decided to make Smartmatic the villain in their story," Smartmatic says in at least one of the suits, according to NBC News.

Powell, in a recent motion, to dismiss the case, argued that she could not be sued in New York, where Smartmatic filed the suit against her, because he did not have sufficient contacts with the state.

She also argued that her appearances on Fox News do not give the state jurisdiction over her.

Powell also says her comments cannot be considered defamatory because the information she shared about the Smartmatic voting machines is "backed by sworn affidavits, expert reports, and other corroborating evidence."

She also argues the First Amendment protects her statements about Smartmatic because they are "political speech and were made in connection with active litigation."

"I stand by my statements about Smartmatic today," Powell said." I believe every allegation I have made about Smartmatic and the vulnerability of these machines is true. This case is meritless and should be thrown out entirely."