Australian reporter clashes with Sidney Powell over 2020 election claims

Sidney Powell, a Trump ally who has repeatedly challenged the 2020 election results in court, walked out of an interview with a reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Company when asked about her false claims over the presidential contest.

When pressed by Sarah Ferguson during an on-camera interview, Powell cut the discussion short by telling the reporter that her line of questioning was “wholly inappropriate in the litigation we are in.”

“How do you justify such a basic factual error?” Ferguson asked Powell.

“I’m going to stop this interview,” Powell responded.

“But we’re not even in the area of great dispute, these are the simple facts,” Ferguson shot back, prompting Powell to shake her head, saying, “No, we’re done.”

She then walked out of the room.

The interview with Powell was for the Australian network’s in-depth news program “Four Corners” and focused on high-profile allies of former President Trump who have made unsubstantiated claims about electoral fraud.

The documentary details how Powell and others made false statements pertaining to Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic Voting Systems, alleging they manipulated votes in President Biden’s favor.

During one segment, Ferguson confronts Fox host Judge Jeanine Pirro outside Fox News World Headquarters in New York City and asks, “Do you still believe Dominion and Smartmatic stole the election for president Trump?”

Pirro smiles and walks away without answering.

Watch as an Australian Broadcasting reporter confronts Judge Jeanine about her election lies. Fox sends down security guards who try to get the reporter to leave. pic.twitter.com/CPIWeJgatM

— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) August 31, 2021

In March, Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox over claims made on air at the network about the company during its coverage of the 2020 presidential election.

Dominion has separately sued Powell for $1.3 billion, and several media companies over defamatory comments about the company. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., rejected a motion earlier this month calling for dismissal of the lawsuits against Powell and two other pro-Trump figures who made similar election claims on air.

Fox News said at the time it was proud of its coverage of the election and filed a motion in May to dismiss Dominion’s lawsuit.

“When a sitting President of the United States and his legal team challenge a presidential election in litigation throughout the nation, the media can truthfully report and comment on those allegations under the First Amendment without fear of liability. Plaintiffs’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News threatens to stifle the media’s free-speech right to inform the public about newsworthy allegations of paramount public concern,” Fox’s attorneys wrote in the motion.

During oral arguments in the case earlier this month, a judge expressed skepticism at Fox’s bid to have the suit dismissed, Reuters reported.

When contacted about the Australian Broadcasting Company documentary, a Fox News spokesperson pointed to instances where some hosts on the network have pushed back on false claims about the election made by Powell and others.

Ferguson, near the end of her report, played a clip from Fox’s Tucker Carlson saying Powell “never demonstrated that a single actual vote was moved illegitimately by software from one candidate to another, not one.”

Fox also said it issued a statement to the Australian Broadcasting Company, which interviewed some former Fox employees for the documentary.

“The use of former disgruntled employees, some of whom were not part of the company during our coverage of the U.S. presidential election and its aftermath, completely discredits any credibility of this program,” the network said. “We stand by our coverage with our millions of viewers who make us the most-watched cable television network.”