Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday over alleged efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia.
Powell, who was charged alongside Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, entered the plea just a day before jury selection was set to start in her trial. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors related to intentionally interfering with the performance of election duties.
As part of the deal, she will serve six years of probation, will be fined $6,000 and will have to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. Powell also agreed to testify truthfully against her co-defendants at future trials.
“The purpose of the conspiracy was to use Misty Hampton’s position to unlawfully access secure elections machines in Coffee County, Georgia,” Assistant District Attorney Daysha Young explained at the hearing, referring to the elections director in the county who has also been charged. The objective was to “willfully tamper with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines” and remove voting data from elections systems. Powell entered into a contract with SullivanStrickler to travel to Coffee County to obtain the data.
Powell is also barred from communicating with “co-defendants, witnesses and media until this case has been completely closed against all defendants” and is required to hand over documents to prosecutors and write an apology letter to Georgia citizens as part of the deal.
“If she is cooperating with Willis, she should be available to be interviewed by Smith and testify,” Scott Fredericksen, a former federal prosecutor and independent counsel said. “She may insist on some kind of protection or immunity from Smith in Smith’s case, but her ability to testify directly to what Trump may have said about the plans to overthrow the election could make her a critical witness.”
Powell has become the second person to take a guilty plea in the case, after bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall.
Powell was scheduled to go on trial on Monday with lawyer Kenneth Chesebro after each filed a demand for a speedy trial. Jury selection was set to start Friday. Chesbro will now go on trial by himself, though prosecutors said earlier that they also planned to look into the possibility of offering him a plea deal.