Sidney Powell, a member of former President Donald Trump‘s legal team, has pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties just a day before her trial was scheduled to begin.
The Dallas-based attorney and member of Trump’s inner circle is the second of 18 of the former president’s co-defendants to plead guilty in the racketeering case. Conspirators are charged with trying to overturn President Biden‘s victory in the 2020 election. Georgia was key to Biden’s victory, the only Southern state in his favor and thus a target for the Trump campaign. Trump and the other co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.
The other co-defendant to plead guilty is Scott Hall, a bail bondsman. Powell and Hall faced charges concerning a clandestine effort to access and copy elections software in rural Coffee County, which is in south Georgia.
According to her plea agreement, Powell will serve six years on probation, pay a $6,000 fine and $2,700 in restitution to the state of Georgia. She will be required to turn over documents. to write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia, and perhaps most importantly, to testify truthfully if called upon in her co-defendants’ trials. She is still facing efforts to get her disbarred in Texas.
Prosecutors are trying to bolster their case against Trump and to credibly establish how high up the chain of command in the Trump organization Powell’s actions were known, ordered or approved. They are certain to ask her about the extent of Trump’s personal involvement as well as that of lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
