Commotion: The Kraken

The mythological creature the Kraken is a terrifying colossal squid, known to pull enemies down to the bottom of the ocean with its giant tentacles. In recent years, the remake of the film Clash of the Titans had a brief moment wherein the Greek god Zeus exclaimed “release the Kraken!”

Michael Flynn’s former attorney Sidney Powell decided to evoke the Kraken during an interview with Fox News. Powell claimed that she had a substantial body of evidence to show that the voting machines used in the 2020 election were rigged. She referred to this body of evidence as “the Kraken” and told Fox News that she was going to release it to the public.

In response, QAnon and other right-wing conspiracy theorists have started the hashtag #ReleaseTheKraken. Powell had since released her interpretation of the Scandinavian squid.

Misbar’s investigation found that Powell’s “Kraken” isn’t quite as potent as she promised. In addition to being riddled with spelling errors (which have since been corrected), the document contains many claims of voter fraud that have been debunked. For example, she said that there is no way for ballots to be audited. This is plainly untrue, as Dominion – the company responsible for the voting machines – prints out paper ballots to be stored and archived, so that they can be audited should the need be. These were used during the Georgia recount. Powell has also alleged that the money used to finance these election fraud attempts is “communist money” and came partially from Cuba, China, and Venezuela.