ATLANTA (CN) — Sidney Powell, one of the defendants in the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and his allies, entered a plea deal Thursday, just a day before jury selection was to begin for her trial.
Under the deal, Powell must serve six years of probation and pay a $6,000 fine. She also agreed to write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia, pay $2,700 in restitution to the state and to testify truthfully in the case.
Powell, a Texas attorney who worked with the Trump campaign after the 2020 elections, faced seven charges in the sprawling racketeering indictment unveiled in August for her role in the supposed criminal "enterprise" that "refused to accept that Trump lost" and "knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump."
But on Thursday, Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties.
According to the indictment, Powell arranged for an Atlanta tech company called SullivanStrickler to copy confidential election data from voting equipment in Coffee County, Georgia. She has also voiced a series of baseless election fraud conspiracy theories, including that voting machines had been rigged for Biden.
Powell agreed to plead guilty to all aspects of the conspiracy outlined by Fulton County prosecutors, including paying employees of SullivanStrickler to travel to Coffee County and copy voter data “without authority” and to “interfere with, hinder and delay” the duties of Misty Hampton, the former Coffee County elections director who is also facing charges in the case.
The plea contradicts repeated claims from Powell’s attorneys in recent court hearings that their client was not involved with the Coffee County incident, and that what happened there was not illegal.
It remains unclear if Powell will be able to keep her license to practice law in Texas, where lawyers face “compulsory” discipline if they are placed on probation for a “serious” or “intentional” offense, according to the State Bar.
After Powell and co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro requested speedy trials, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ordered the two to be tried separately from Trump and the other 16 defendants. Jury selection for the trial is set to begin tomorrow.
Chesebro faces seven felony charges for his purported role in helping other defendants coordinate a plan to impanel alternative slates of GOP Trump electors in Georgia and other swing states.
On Tuesday, Judge McAfee rejected bids from Chesebro and Powell to dismiss their cases, finding that the charges against them were not defective on their face.
McAfee also rejected Chesebro’s request to exclude key evidence from the case, including memos in which Chesebro explained how the Trump campaign could use Republican electors to falsely certify that Trump won in states that Biden had actually won. The judge rejected Chesebro’s argument that such evidence is protected by attorney-client privileges, because there is enough reason to believe it was used in the commission of a crime.
Powell is the second defendant to enter a plea deal in the case, bringing the total number of defendants down from 19 to 17, including Trump. Last month, Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hall was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, serve five years of probation, complete 200 hours of community service, testify truthfully when summoned, and is banned from participating in polling and election administration-related activities. He is also forbidden to discuss the case with any of the co-defendants or with the media and must write a letter of apology to Georgia voters.
According to the indictment brought in August, Hall was also present at the Coffee County elections office in January 2021, where he helped Powell access voting equipment and copy confidential data.
Follow @Megwiththenews
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
Head of Vietnam’s parliament resigns amid corruption probe April 26, 2024 -
