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The recent plea deal taken by Donald Trump's former attorney Sidney Powell could "spell trouble" for other co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case such as Rudy Giuliani, according to legal analyst Anthony Michael Kreis.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation into the former president's alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia has led to Trump's former attorneys Powell and Kenneth Chesebro to plead guilty.
Powell, who was one of 18 people indicted alongside Trump, on Thursday pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties. Both Powell and Chesebro will also have to testify truthfully against their co-defendants—including Trump and Giuliani—as part of the deal.
Willis charged Giuliani with 13 crimes, including violating the state's racketeering law (known as RICO), soliciting public officials to violate their oath of office, conspiring to commit forgery, and making false statements. Both Trump and Giuliani have maintained their innocence in the case.
Since Powell's guilty plea, many legal analysts have weighed in on what this could mean for the former president and the co-defendants' defense.
In a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, Kreis shared his thoughts on Powell by stating that she "spells trouble" for the former mayor of New York City, Giuliani, and former U.S. Assistant Attorney General, Jeffrey Clark.
"I remain skeptical that Powell is a huge threat to Trump now— perhaps more so in the Special Counsel case than in Georgia— I think more than anything else she spells trouble for Rudy Giuliani and Jeff Clark in Georgia as she connects various spokes of the conspiracy wheel," Kreis wrote on X.
Newsweek has reached out to Giuliani's representatives for comment via email.
In addition, in a statement to Newsweek, Kreis shared how the plea deals will assist in explaining to a jury Giuliani's role in the case as it could be "very damning" for him if the jury is able to clarify his efforts to overturn the election results.
"These deals allow Chesebro and Powell to offer testimony explaining to a jury how Giuliani was the head of various spokes of the conspiracy, which could be very damning if it clarifies for a jury how he was central to the attempts to not only overturn the election results in the state legislature, but also how he was part of an effort to concoct evidence of election fraud and further efforts to usurp power for Trump on January 6," Kreis told Newsweek.
However, Kreis is not the only one making the connection and warning that Powell's plea deal causes concerns for Giuliani. Palm Beach County State Attorney, Dave Aronberg told Newsweek he believes Giuliani is worried about Powell.
"Rudy Giuliani has been especially unhinged since Powell's plea, which makes me believe he's worried that she could help connect him to the broader conspiracy. Perhaps he should not have earlier revealed his legal strategy of laying the blame on Powell. It's now kill or be killed for these defendants, metaphorically speaking," Aronberg said via an X message to Newsweek.
Meanwhile, in a prior statement to Newsweek, former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi agreed that plea deals were a bad sign for defendants like Trump and Giuliani.
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About the writer
Natalie Venegas is a Weekend Reporter at Newsweek based in New York. Her focus is reporting on education, social justice ... Read more