Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case, one day before her trial was set to begin.
Powell admitted her role in violating election systems in January 2021 in rural Coffee County, Georgia. With the help of local Republican officials and a group of Trump supporters, she copied information from the county’s election systems in hopes of somehow proving that the election had been rigged against Trump.
Prosecutors in the case are recommending a six-year probation sentence. Additionally, Powell will be required to testify in future trials, write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia, pay nearly $9,000 in restitution and fines, and return documents.
She is now the second person in this case to plead guilty. Scott Hall pleaded guilty last month and also agreed to testify in future trials. The other 17 defendants, including Trump, have pleaded not guilty so far.
Powell stated that she took actions after the 2020 election “with the purpose of intentionally altering electronic voting markers and tabulators” and “with the intent to take and appropriate information, data, and software, owned by Dominion Voting Systems Corporation,” according to court documents.
She also mentioned hiring a forensic data analysis company and sending its employees to Coffee County to illegally access government computers in order to “examine personal data of voters, knowing that she did not have authority for such examination,” according to the documents.
Powell was prosecuted under Georgia’s “First Offender Act,” which allows individuals who have never committed crimes to avoid having a conviction on their record if they fulfill the terms of their sentence. The prosecutor emphasized that if Powell successfully completes her sentence, she will be able to “honestly say” that she “was never convicted of these charges.”
What does this mean for Trump?
The lawyer’s guilty plea is a blow to Trump, who faces the most charges among all defendants, alongside Rudolph W. Giuliani, his former personal attorney. Both men face 13 charges. In practice, this means that a member of Trump’s former legal team will cooperate with the proceedings accusing Trump of attempting to alter the outcome of the Georgia elections to remain in power.
Source: CNN