Ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell pleads guilty, could testify in Georgia
case
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[October 20, 2023]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former lawyer for Donald Trump on
Thursday pleaded guilty to aiding the former U.S. president's efforts to
overturn his election defeat in the state of Georgia, agreeing to
testify against him if called.
The lawyer, Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to
commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, a
misdemeanor charge. She agreed to testify against Trump and the other 16
co-defendants in the case if prosecutors ask her too.
The Georgia case is one of four concurrent criminal cases that Trump,
the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is
facing, and one of two specifically focused on his attempts to overturn
his election defeat. Trump continues to falsely claim his loss was the
result of fraud.
Powell's plea came just days before she was set to go to trial beginning
on Monday on charges including racketeering and conspiracy to commit
election fraud.
A lawyer for Powell did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to a sweeping Fulton County, Georgia,
indictment charging him with violating the state's Racketeer Influenced
and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, act in his efforts to overturn his
loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Powell admitted to plotting to unlawfully access secure election
machines in rural Coffee County in southeastern Georgia in January 2021.
The plea agreement calls for her to be sentenced to six years of
probation.
Powell's guilty plea is a significant victory for Fulton County District
Attorney Fani Willis, whose team has now gained the cooperation of a
lawyer closely tied to Trump's efforts to reverse his election defeat.
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![](../images/102023PIX/news_w23.jpg)
Sidney Powell is shown in a police booking mugshot released by the
Fulton County Sheriff's Office, after a Grand Jury brought back
indictments against former U.S. president Donald Trump and 18 of his
allies in their attempt to overturn the state's 2020 election
results in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. August 23, 2023. Fulton County
Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Oct/20/images/ads/current/collision_lda_PPP_2023.png)
Powell represented Trump following the 2020 presidential election
and helped spread his false claims that the election had been marred
by widespread voter fraud. She famously threatened to "release the
kraken," a mythological sea monster.
Prosecutors said Powell and other co-defendants tampered with
electronic ballot markers and accessed data belonging to Dominion
Voting Systems, the voting machine company that Powell and other
Trump allies falsely claimed helped rig the election against Trump.
Powell's attorneys contested the charges in legal motions ahead of
trial, arguing that access to voting equipment in Coffee County had
been authorized.
Powell was scheduled to be tried alongside Kenneth Chesebro, another
lawyer who assisted Trump following the election.
If Chesebro goes ahead with trial, Trump could gain a strategic
advantage in preparing for his own upcoming Georgia trial, since his
attorneys would get a preview of much of the case against him.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward, additional reporting by Kanishka
Singh; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)
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