Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election interference case

Attorney Sidney Powell pleaded guilty Thursday to reduced charges related to efforts to thwart Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.

Powell, along with Trump and 17 others, were charged with violating state fraud laws. He pleaded guilty a day before jury selection was scheduled to begin at his trial.. A judge agreed that he would serve about six years of probation, pay $2,700 in restitution and testify truthfully against his co-defendants.

Powell was initially charged with fraud and six other charges as part of a broader scheme to keep the Republican president in power after losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say he also participated in an unauthorized tampering with election equipment at a rural Georgia county elections office.

Accepting a plea deal is a drastic change for the lawyer, perhaps more than anyone else. Strongly promoted baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

If prosecutors compel her to testify, she could provide information about a press conference she attended on behalf of Trump and his campaign after the election and a White House meeting she attended in mid-December of that year. and principles explained. Factors influencing election results were discussed.

Powell was scheduled to go to trial Monday with attorney Kenneth Chesbro after each exercised his right to a speedy trial. Jury selection was scheduled to begin on Friday. The development means Chesebro will go to trial alone, although prosecutors earlier plan to explore the possibility of offering him a plea deal.

A lesser defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanors. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify at subsequent proceedings.

Prosecutors allege Powell conspired with Hall and others to gain unauthorized access to election equipment and hired computer forensics firm SullivanStrickler to ship the equipment to Coffee County in south Georgia and copy software and data from election machines.

The indictment says an unnamed person emailed a senior SullivanStrickler executive and ordered him to send all data copied from Dominion voting system equipment in Coffee County to an unnamed attorney associated with Powell and Trump’s campaign.