Sidney Powell retweets claim that she would indict half a dozen people by January if she were special counsel

Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s lawyer, is among those said to oppose bringing Ms Powell back into the fold

Sidney Powell, a Donald Trump loyalist lawyer who publicly dealt in election fraud conspiracy theories so extreme that she was initially sidelined from the campaign, has retweeted a call for her to be made a White House special counsel.  

The tweet claimed that if she held the position, there would be "half a dozen people indicted by January 4th."

The claim apparently resonated with Ms Powell, who shared it with her followers.  

Ms Powell was dropped from Mr Trump's legal defence team in late November, reportedly because her shoddily-written lawsuits and conspiracy theorising made her harmful to the campaign's overall goals. The Washington Post reported at the time that Mr Trump wanted her gone after seeing criticism of her on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show. 

Though no longer on the team, she continued to launch lawsuits aimed at contesting the election results. She became the subject of mockery on the left and hope on the right when she said she would "release the Kraken," a reference to the numerous lawsuits she planned to launch. 

It seems that Mr Trump's feelings towards Ms Powell and her methods may have shifted; he invited her to the White House on Friday night along with Michael Flynn, the disgraced former national security adviser pardoned by Mr Trump after he twice admitted lying to the FBI.  

Both Ms Powell and Mr Flynn openly flirt with QAnon conspiracy theory adherents in their online interactions.  

The meeting raised eyebrows among critics and watchdog groups, as Ms Powell continues to push long-debunked conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Software and Mr Flynn has casually told Newsmax viewers that Mr Trump could use the military to re-run elections in states where he lost.

Sources speaking with ABC News said the meeting devolved into Ms Powell shouting and making demands while calling Mr Trump's aides "quitters."

Mr Trump's aides – including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and other attorneys representing his legal challenges – apparently talked him out of making Ms Powell special counsel by the end of the meeting.  

She apparently returned to the White House on Sunday to pitch Mr Trump on issuing an executive order to seize voting machine and examine them for "irregularities," according to a source who spoke with the New York Times' Maggie Haberman.  

Ms Powell has never produced credible evidence for her claims, and some of her lawsuits have contained flaws, including misspellings and mixing up state data.