Sidney Powell's Ties to QAnon Movement Explained

Sidney Powell, the former campaign lawyer for President Donald Trump, has seemingly further cemented her ties to the QAnon movement, while continuing to make unproven claims about the election results.

On Tuesday night, Powell shared a stage at a "Stop the Steal" rally in Georgia alongside her new ally Lin Wood, an attorney who is also representing the alleged Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.

The rally caused outrage after Wood suggested Trump supporters abstain from voting in the crucial upcoming Georgia runoffs on January 5 as Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have "not earned" their support.

"Don't you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election for god's sake! Fix it! You gotta fix it," Wood said.

Wood, who has repeatedly claimed the election was rigged and helped spread misinformation about voter fraud, has the hashtag #WWG1WGA—an abbreviation of the QAnon slogan "where we go one we go all—in his Twitter bio.

On Monday, Powell also cited an affidavit from Ron Watkins, a man with significant ties to the QAnon movement, in her latest lawsuit challenging the election results.

Watkins is the former administrator of the controversial messageboard site 8Kun, originally known as 8Chan. Users of 8Chan emigrated en masse from 4chan, where the base of the QAnon conspiracy theory first appeared in late 2017 as a result of cryptic messages posted there by a mysterious figure known as "Q".

The coded messages or "drops" would be interpreted by QAnon followers to form what would evolve into the radical claims made by the movement involving satanic pedophiles and the "deep state."

Q's messages then began appearing on 8Kun. Despite Q posting thousands of times over the past few years, Q's messages have only been sent three times since Election Day, much to the heartache of many devout QAnon followers.

November 3 also just so happens to be the same day Watkins announced he was stepping down as admin from 8Kun, prompting speculation that he himself is the figure behind QAnon. He denies these claims.

In Powell's lawsuit, Watkins does not directly allege that voter fraud was committed in Georgia. Instead, he states that voting machines "may enable voter fraud by unethical officials," which he believes is "within the realm of possibility."

On Twitter, Watkins has repeatedly pushed claims that Dominion Voting Systems machines used in the election were part of a conspiracy to cost Trump the election.

This is not the first time that Powell has been linked to QAnon.

She rose to prominence as the attorney for former national security advisor Michael Flynn.

The recently pardoned Flynn is seen as a hero in the QAnon movement ever since he took a makeshift oath of office in his backyard that ended with the line "where we go one we go all."

Flynn also has hashtags used by the QAnon movement in his Twitter bio.

In the past, Powell has appeared on QAnon-supporting YouTube shows, as well as frequently retweeting QAnon Twitter accounts.

Powell has also tweeted using the hashtags #TheStormIsComing and #TheStorm—a reference to the moment that QAnon supporters think Trump will start taking down the "deep state" and arrest leading Democrat figures.

Powell's current Twitter profile avatar is a picture of her along with Flynn and a not-so-subtle lightning storm appearing over the White House.

Powell appears to have embraced QAnon's backing of her slogan "release the Kraken." The Kraken was the name given to her lawsuits, which she said would prove fraud was committed in Georgia and Michigan.

The lawsuits were later found to contain a series of typos, repeated debunked claims and no substantial evidence.

Elsewhere, a joint Twitter account between Powell and Wood called @KrakenWood was suspended just a few days after it was created. It is unclear why Twitter suspended the account.

Twitter and Powell have been contacted for comment.