Source: Handout / Getty
OK, this is yuge!
A second co-defendant in Donald Trump’s RICO indictment for allegedly interfering with the 2020 election in Georgia has pleaded guilty. But not just any defendant. Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell was one of the most visible, publicity-loving members of the ex-president’s legal team. She was basically ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani‘s sidekick as they tied up courts at every level with frivolous cases and easily dismissed alleging the fiction that Trump lost his bid for a second term because of illegal voting, made-up ballots and rigged voting machines.
She was also charged with six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, which, on Thursday, she pleaded guilty to.
From USA Today:
Powell agreed to testify in future trials in exchange for serving six years of probation, a $6,000 fine and paying restitution of $2,700.
Powell is one of 19 co-defendants charged in the case, which alleged a broad racketeering conspiracy. Other portions of the conspiracy included the recruitment of fake presidential electors to vote for Trump despite President Joe Biden winning Georgia, lying about election results to state officials and in court records, and soliciting public officials to violate their oaths of office.
Legal experts said Powell’s agreement to testify against others in the case is “very significant” because she dealt at length with Trump, lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others charged in the conspiracy.
“I think it’s very significant because she is one of the people who was closest to Trump in many of these alleged nefarious activities, and as part of the agreement, she must testify truthfully against Trump as well as the other defendants,’ said John Banzhaf, a George Washington University law professor who has been following the case closely. “So it is a major victory for Fani Willis and certainly a major concern for Trump.”
Powell was initially charged with conspiring with bail bondsman Scott Hall, who has also pleaded guilty to the RICO charges against him and others to access election equipment provided by Dominion Voting Systems without authorization. They even hired computer forensics firm SullivanStrickler to send a team to copy software and data from voting machines and computers they were told they couldn’t legally access. Another way of putting that is that they used fraudulent means to prove Dominion’s voting machines were fraudulent, which, of course, they were not.
It’s worth pointing out that conspiring to undermine democracy in order to keep Trump in office after he was legally voted out should not be a misdemeanor and certainly should result in more than less than a year of probation and less than $10,000 in fines. On top of that, Powell won’t even have to call herself a convict officially.
More from USA Today:
Powell’s agreement fell under Georgia’s First Offender Act, which will allow her to “honestly say” she was never convicted of the charges if she successfully completes her probation and is discharged, according to prosecutor Daysha Young. If Powell violates the terms of her first-offender sentence or commits another offense while on probation, her first-offender status could be revoked and she could be resentenced to the maximum, Young said.
Still, legal experts feel that Powell’s plea is a big step toward the prosecutors proving their case against Trump and the other 17 co-defendants considering she was such a major player in his circus-like MAGA games.
“Miss Powell is at the vortex, the center, the hub of the alleged conspiracy,” said Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor and Justice Department official who has decades of experience with RICO cases. “She will be a phenomenal witness for the government because she was at strategic meetings, part of important conversations and she was a leader in implementing the scheme to discredit the lawful election of Joe Biden.”
