Sidney Powell’s key ‘military intelligence expert’ never served
Sidney Powell touted Joshua Merritt as a military intelligence expert to help allege voter fraud
In their continued efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results in favor of President Donald Trump, lawyer Sidney Powell has been touting a “military intelligence expert” as a key figure to prove voter fraud. However, The Washington Post reported Friday that the expert is not a member of the military.
The so-called expert was identified as Texas information technology consultant Joshua Merritt. Powell had attempted to hide the identity of Merritt, referring to him with only the code name “Spyder” or “Spider.” Powell stated that voting systems in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Michigan were “certainly compromised by rogue actors, such as Iran and China.”
READ MORE: Michigan Supreme Court declines Trump lawsuit over election challengers
President Trump has been filing lawsuits claiming that President-Elect Joe Biden‘s win was due to fraudulent mail-in votes in those four battleground states.
Powell said that “Spider” was a “military intelligence expert” that could testify on behalf of this claim and that his identity needed to be hidden in order to shield him.
However, it has been uncovered by that Merritt, 43, had never completed his entry-level training for the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion over 15 years ago.
READ MORE: Supreme Court rejects Republican attack on Biden victory
Meredith Mingledorff, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, has confirmed that Merritt “kept washing out of courses” during his training and that “He’s not an intelligence analyst.” Merritt himself conceded that he had only been a seven month trainee for the 305th.
This is not the first time the Trump administration was caught using an official to push through actions under false pretenses. As previously reported by theGrio, Chad Wolf, former acting chief of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had been unlawfully appointed to his position. As a result, the DHS’ attempt to suspend the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was stopped.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
