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The guilty plea of former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell in connection with the 2020 election interference case in Georgia has been described as hugely significant for prosecutors by legal experts
Powell, who was one of 18 people indicted alongside the former president in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' sprawling RICO case, pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties just days before she was due to stand trial alongside co-defendant, lawyer Kenneth Chesebro.
As part of a plea deal, Powell agreed to hand over documents and testify against the other defendants in their trial, which may include Trump. Powell was also sentenced to six years' probation and made to pay a $6,000 fine and $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia.
Powell is the second person charged under Willis' probe into alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in favor of Trump to plead guilty. In late September, bail bondsman Scott Hall admitted to charges relating to a voting system breach in Georgia's Coffee County in 2021. Hall must also testify if prosecutors call him as a witness in any other of the Georgia election cases as part of his plea deal.
Trump and 16 others indicted in Willis' probe have pleaded not guilty to all the charges against them.
Mai Ratakonda, senior counsel at the States United Democracy Center, said that Powell's guilty plea is a "win" for Willis as her office tries to prove there was an expansive criminal conspiracy involving Trump and his allies, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
"This is a Trump lawyer admitting that she broke the law when she tried to help him overturn the 2020 election results. That's a win for DA Willis, and it's a win for accountability more broadly," Ratakonda told Newsweek.
"It also gives us some insight into what comes next. Not only has Sidney Powell admitted to a crime, but she will now have to testify against other defendants involved in the same scheme.
"This is the second guilty plea in the Georgia case, and each provides the DA with more evidence to help a jury piece together how the bigger conspiracy fits together," Ratakonda added.
No other trial date apart from Chesebro's on October 23 has been set for the other defendants.
Powell was accused of illegally accessing and removing computer voting data from the Coffee County Board of Elections in Georgia, as well as discussing a plot to seize voting equipment as part of attempts to overturn the election results in favor of Trump.
The former Trump lawyer frequently pushed 2020 election conspiracy theories and misinformation and has been linked to the QAnon movement. She was also mentioned as an unnamed co-conspirator in Special Counsel Jack Smith's federal indictment into alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, where Trump has pleaded not guilty to four charges.
Writing in her blog, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance said it is likely that Powell had decided to "cut her losses and flip on her co-defendants" including Trump in the Georgia case rather than risk a lengthy prison sentence.
"Powell is a big fish for prosecutors to bring on board, and not only because of Trump. Her interactions with numerous other co-defendants—Rudy Giuliani for one—make her valuable too. Will Kenneth Chesebro, also on the eve of trial, plead guilty?" Vance wrote.
"Powell's plea, on its own, is highly significant. But Trump has to be worried that she won't be the only domino to go down."
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, and Florida ... Read more