© 2026 ABC News

Several legal experts said Powell may be uniquely vulnerable to sanction because of the number of errors in her filings -- some of them egregious. Some of the most troubling, they said, surfaced in an election challenge she brought in federal court in Wisconsin earlier this week.

In the case, Powell asked a Wisconsin judge to order the release of 48 hours of security camera footage from the TCF Center -- but the facility is actually in Michigan.

\"PHOTO:
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: Rudy Giuliani, personal lawyer of President Donald Trump, walks to take his seat during an appearance before the Michigan House Oversight Committee in Lansing, Mich., Dec. 2, 2020.
>

In another apparent gaffe, one of the plaintiffs Powell named -- unsuccessful Republican congressional candidate Derrick Van Orden -- said the case was filed on his behalf without his knowledge or approval.

\"I am not a fan of people using my name without my permission,\" Van Orden told ABC News after he found out about the suit via social media. \"Can you even do that?\"

Asked about the error, Powell told ABC News. \"I'm informed by counsel who had spoken to him that there was apparently a miscommunication.\" Van Orden’s name has since been removed from the case, and he told ABC News that he has no intention of pursuing legal action against Powell.

\"If I were her lawyer, what I would say is cut it out,\" said Gillers, the NYU expert. \"Just stop it, because you're on the road to disbarment.\"

'Speculative accusations'

Trump's legal team has maintained in speeches, in interviews and on social media that they have compelling evidence of fraud to buttress their legal effort. But when pushed to present it in court, they have been unable to deliver. For this, the president has blamed the courts themselves.

\"All we need is to have some judge listen to it properly without having a political opinion or having another kind of problem,\" Trump said last week.

Judges have seen it differently. U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann, a Republican, wrote that Trump's legal filings presented only \"speculative accusations.\" A Trump appointee to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Stephanos Bibas, was even less charitable, admonishing that \"calling an election unfair does not make it so.\"

\"Charges require specific allegations and then proof,\" Bibas said in rejecting a Trump suit. \"We have neither here.\"

ABC News' Luke Barr contributed to this report.

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