The Kraken meets The Grift. With the filing of a motion to dismiss a billion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, Sidney Powell perhaps tossed former President Donald J. Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Lin Wood, and their election fraud fundraising efforts, in front of the bus. As for attorney John Pierce, he angled to join President Trump’s election efforts, however, it appears the lawyer fired by 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse did not make the cut. Be that as it may, Pierce and Wood are no strangers to questions about fundraising efforts of their own.
As for Powell, while it’s not clear what became of the Kraken, the Grift is perhaps alive and well. Indeed, the juxtaposition of details about a Powell fundraiser, with her Dominion lawsuit filing, is illuminating.
March 2021 – The Powell Motion to Dismiss
First, we’ll start with the most recent Powell news. A Law & Crime article by Adam Klasfeld covers Powell’s court filing which seeks to dispose of Dominion’s defamation complaint. The headline speaks for itself.
The filing resulted in a social media explosion with suggestions that the leopard print wearing attorney pulled the okie-doke on those that supported Powell’s election fraud efforts.
November 2020 – The Powell Fundraiser
Indeed, given the position staked in Powell’s motion to dismiss, donors to her election fraud fundraiser are perhaps suffering buyer’s remorse. For useful context, we need look no further than a late November article about the fundraiser by Daniel Bates of The Daily Mail.
Indeed, while asking for the general public’s money, Powell sang a vastly different tune. A few verbatim passages from the Daily Mail are telling.
- “The website has a form for credit card payments and suggests that rather than writing checks to The Legal Defense Fund people should make them payable to ‘Sidney Powell’.”
- Originally [the website] stated that ‘$500,000 must be raised in the next 24 hours’ but it has since been updated to ask for ‘millions’ in donations to stop the certification of ballots in Arizona, Georgia and other states that Biden won.
- The mission of the organization is listed as: ‘To protect and defend the lawful votes of American citizens, ensure election integrity, educate the world on what it means to be a constitutional Republic, and pursue legal action to preserve the vision of our Founders and to maintain this great Republic’.
- The website adds . . .The left, the media, and a complicit Republican Establishment are attempting to steal this election through a staggering voter fraud operation. The time to fight is now’
In light of the bullets, is this a situation of the Kraken meets the Grift?
More Powell Fundraising Fun With a Twist of Lin Wood
While it appears to have flown under the radar, Powell and Lin Wood combined efforts on another fundraising appeal. Around one week after the Daily Mail article, a new LLC popped up – KrakenWood LLC. According to a “Certificate of Formation,” Powell andWood are “governing members,” with a third entity. Notably, donations for this Texas-based LLC may flow directly to a 501(c)(4) non-profit for which Wood is on the Board of Directors – the #FightBack Foundation.
The #FightBack Foundation
Powell pushed the Kraken with Rudy Giuliani and Lin Wood. As noted, Wood and Powell are also governing members of KrakenWood LLC, which provides for donations to flow to #FightBack. As for Wood and Giuliani, both have ties to attorney John Pierce. The embattled attorney is former counsel for his close friend Giuliani, and was on the #FightBack Board of Directors with Wood. Similar to Powell’s initial fundraising appeal, #FightBack is a 501(c)(4); it was the original chosen to raise funds for the defense of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Wood and Pierce were Rittenhouse’s initial attorneys. Both no longer have any affiliation with the Kenosha shooter.
Pierce’s Financial Shambles Cause Problems
Just a few days after news of Pierce’s involvement with #FightBack became public, Will Sommer at the Daily Beast exposed the Harvard Law School graduate’s abysmal financial situation. With his “dodgy finances” revealed, Pierce stepped off the #FightBack Board.
A few months later, the Rittenhouse prosecutor challenged the California-based Pierce’s application to practice law in state of Wisconsin saying that “[g]iven [Pierce’s] own substantial personal debts, his involvement with an unregulated and opaque ‘slush fund’ provides ample opportunity for self-dealing and fraud.”
Pierce stepped off the criminal defense hours later.
Two months later, Kyle Rittenhouse personally fired Pierce.
More #FightBack Foundation Drama
The debacles above are just the tip of the #FightBack drama iceberg. For example, Pierce has accused Lin Wood of “stealing” the Foundation, claiming #FightBack was Pierce’s idea. An article in the Daily Beast by Kate Briquelet exposes additional issues.
Quotes from an individual described as a “representative of #FreeKyleUSA” — a post-#FightBack Rittenhouse fundraising appeal — suggest a lack of transparency which apparently left even Rittenhouse’s mother Wendy in the dark.
“It’s a big deal that [the Rittenhouse family has] not been provided an accounting at all,” the representative added. “Wendy [Rittenhouse, Kyle’s mother] has no idea what was raised, from what sources, she has no idea who was paid what from the defense. All she knows really is upwards of a half-million dollars was spent on a failed extradition fight that should have never been started.”
The John Pierce and Lin Wood Recording
On top of this all, speculation swirled that Rittenhouse was in jail longer than necessary, which perhaps provided a more opportunistic situation for fundraising. Interestingly, an audio recording of a Pierce and Wood phone call surfaced last month which, while not dispositive, elevates the intrigue. Sound Up.
Pierce Accused of Trying to Cash in on the $2M Rittenhouse Bond
Finally, yes, there is more, a former client accused Pierce of trying to cash in on the $2M Rittenhouse bond. This perhaps sounds “truth is stranger than fiction,” hence, context is helpful.
The Harvard Law School and University of Notre Dame educate Pierce appears to be a severely cash strapped attorney. A “Financial Dossier” covering Pierce and his law firm Pierce Bainbridge is alarming reading. Furthermore, another client, not Rittenhouse, fired Pierce in August 2020 and recently referred to Pierce as a “crook.” Yet a third client, who also fired Pierce, accused his firm Pierce Bainbridge of running a “Ponzi Scheme.”
Given these issues, Pierce’s buddy Giuliani’s, a former client of Pierce firm, recent tweet about “corruption” and “legal consequences” appears an example of the hair dye calling the kettle black or “Little Glass Houses for Rudy Giuliani.“
With that foundation, the $2M Rittenhouse bond accusation against Pierce is perhaps viewed with a less skeptical lens. And, without further ado, we wrap up the #FightBack issues with an extraordinary 19-minute video clip of a former Pierce client. Sound Up.
Release the Kraken or Release the Grift?
These 501(c)(4) fundraising efforts keep popping up. The efforts each appear politicized, they also each appear to be immersed in some level of shade.
Indeed, a review of Sidney Powell’s motion to dismiss elicits thoughts of the Kraken meets the Grift.
Lawsuits are in play, disciplinary wheels in motion, criminal authorities poking around, we imagine much remains to be revealed.
As the age-old maxim goes: Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
***Check out “My David & Goliath Battle With the Corrupt Law Firm Hired by Rudy Giuliani.“ You can also find me at @DonLew87 on Twitter and Don Lewis-2215 @ Medium
