Powell says White House aides won't let her help Trump
In an interview with Zenger News, Powell said she had heard only radio silence from the White House following her meeting with the president in the Oval Office on Friday, seemingly confirming that she was unable to speak to Trump when she visited the White House on Sunday.
"I've been blocked from speaking to or communicating with the president since I left the Oval Office on Friday night," Powell told Zenger's David Martsoko, "by apparently everyone around him."
Powell also said she was verbally offered the position of "special counsel" by Trump during Friday's meeting, but has been unable to present him with paperwork to make it official.
"I am not a Robert Mueller-style special counsel," Powell told Zenger News, adding:"[T]here was a discussion about me being a special White House counsel."
"It has not come to pass, because it seems it was blocked after Friday night, or undone, or I'm not sure what you'd call it," she added.
Her comments seemingly reflect efforts by senior White House officials to freeze her relationship with the president and prevent her from gaining more access; CNN reported that Powell alongside former national security adviser Michael Flynn had a contentious meeting with White House aides and Trump on Friday that at times became heated when aides to the president rejected the pair's more fanciful claims of widespread election fraud.
The president and his allies including Powell and Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney, have sought for weeks to overturn elections results in states including Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Their efforts have yet to see any success, and have twice been dismissed thus far by the U.S. Supreme Court.
