Attorney Sidney Powell said the January 6 riot at the Capitol could have caused a delay which would have allowed Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito time to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election victory—but that chance was lost when Nancy Pelosi reconvened Congress to complete the process.
Powell, an attorney who has filed numerous lawsuits in a failed bid to overturn former President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, made the comments during an appearance on the conservative Stew Peters Show on Friday.
She said that as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol that day, her team was seeking an emergency injunction to prevent the certification of Biden's win.
"We were filing a 12th Amendment constitutional challenge to the process that the Congress was about to use under the Electoral Act provisions that simply don't jive with the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution," she said. "And Justice Alito was our circuit justice for that."
She added: "Louie Gohmert was the plaintiff in our lawsuit, and we were suing the vice president to follow the 12th Amendment as opposed to the Electoral College Act."
Powell said that GOP Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise opposed having House Speaker Nancy Pelosi join the case as an opposing party, which limited her involvement to filing an amicus brief.
"There had been inside goings-on in Congress whereby I believe it was Steve Scalise and McCarthy kept her from being an actual party," Powell said. "She wanted to work her way into the case as a party, but somehow politically that didn't happen."
Powell claimed that when Pelosi learned of the lawsuit, she hurriedly reconvened Congress to certify Biden's victory shortly after the attack on the Capitol.
"She got notice when we made our filing because she wanted to file an amicus brief," Powell said. "And everything broke loose and she really had to speed up reconvening Congress to get the vote going before Justice Alito might have issued an injunction to stop it all, which is what should have happened."
Powell's mention of Justice Alito prompted his name to trend on Twitter on Sunday.
Representatives for Powell, Alito, Pelosi, McCarthy and Scalise have been contacted for comment.
Update 9/28/21: This article updated Sidney Powell's remarks in relation to the events of January 6.
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