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Former President Donald Trump received good news in his 2020 election case in Fulton County, Georgia, as a co-defendant announced recently that he would not be taking a plea deal.
One of Trump's co-defendants, Reverend Stephen Cliffgard Lee, announced at an event last week that he has no plans to take a plea deal in the case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis relating to alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election in the county, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"I am not going to plead out to a lie," Lee said at a fundraiser hosted by the Families of Faith Ministries. "I'm not going to cooperate with evil. This is bigger than me."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson and Lee's lawyer via email for comment.
In Fulton County, Trump and 17 other co-defendants have been indicted on accusations relating to the alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, as well as violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Trump has continued to deny any wrongdoing in the Fulton County case and has criticized Willis in response to the indictment.
The former president's legal team announced in September that they were not requesting the Fulton County case to be moved to federal court.
"This decision is based on his well-founded confidence that this honorable court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial and guarantee him due process of law throughout the prosecution of his case in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia," his lawyers said in a filing.
Some of Trump's other co-defendants—Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall—have already accepted a plea deal in the case.
"If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump, in these postelection challenges...I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse," Ellis, a former Trump attorney, said in court while accepting her plea deal.
In response to Powell's plea deal, Trump issued a post on TruthSocial claiming that she was never part of his legal team.
"Sidney Powell was one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN," Trump said last month. "Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS."
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About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more