Donald Trump's former lawyer Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to destroying the election in Georgia the day before his trial began.
As part of his guilty plea, Mr. Powell admitted his involvement in election fraud that occurred in January 2021 in rural Coffee County, Georgia. A group of Trump supporters, with the help of local Republican officials, accessed the county's election system and copied information in an effort to somehow prove that the election was rigged against Trump.
The Fulton County Prosecutor's Office is recommending a sentence of six years in prison followed by supervised release. Powell will also have to testify in a future trial, write a letter of apology to the people of Georgia, pay nearly $9,000 in restitution and fines, and submit documents.
Trump, a co-defendant in the Fulton County case, was not named in Powell's guilty plea documents and was not mentioned during Thursday's brief hearing.
After the 2020 election, Powell promoted conspiracy theories about fraud and false claims that millions of votes were funneled into a global anti-Trump plot involving Venezuela and other foreign powers.
She is now the second person to plead guilty in this major extortion case. Her bail bondsman, Scott Hall, pleaded guilty last month and agreed to testify at a future trial. The remaining 17 defendants, including Trump, have pleaded not guilty.
Powell's statement said he "intentionally manipulated electronic ballots and voting machines" after the 2020 election and "seized and forfeited information, data, and software owned by Dominion Voting Systems." He admitted that he had taken the action for the purpose of doing so. British newspaper "Daily Mail". New court documents.
She also hired a data forensics company and sent its employees to Coffee County to illegally access government computers "knowingly that voter background checks were not authorized," according to the documents. He reportedly admitted that.
Her attorney vehemently rejected her prosecutor's claim that she orchestrated the illegal activity in Coffee County. In a pretrial hearing, he said the prosecution's decision was "wrong" and that "the evidence will show that she was not the driving force" in the accident.
"This is a really big win for prosecutors," CNN senior legal analyst Ellie Honig told News Central.
It is very important to understand that cooperation cannot be achieved half-heartedly. If you were a prosecutor, you wouldn't be able to tell Sidney unless you were absolutely certain that (a) she was telling the truth, and (b) she would testify credibly on your behalf in your own way. -I wouldn't have made this deal with Powell. "I believe the jury will return a not guilty verdict and will not be divided."
There was only one Georgia defendant named in Thursday's guilty plea documents, Misty Hampton, who was Coffee County's elections director during the 2020 election cycle. To the court. Hampton has pleaded not guilty to seven felonies.
Fulton County Judge McAfee repeatedly rejected Powell's bids to dismiss the case or at least drop some of the most serious charges, including the RICO violation charge.
His final decision came Wednesday night, rejecting Powell's argument that the charges violated his First Amendment rights.
The second and final announcement fundamentally changes the trial, which was scheduled to begin Friday, with the jury being chosen in favor of Mr. Powell and co-defendant Kenneth Chesebrough. In the first legal showdown in the wide-ranging case, both sides have exercised their right to a speedy trial, but it appears Mr Chesebro will now proceed alone.
Mr. Chesebro has pleaded not guilty to seven felonies related to his role in the voter fraud conspiracy.
Aside from the Georgia case, Powell still faces legal issues.
She is an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election destruction case brought against Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith. CNN previously reported that the investigation has continued in recent months and that she continues to closely monitor Powell. She has not been charged in the case.
In addition, Powell is facing a major defamation lawsuit from two voting technology companies that have accused her of fraud in the 2020 election. Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic filed suit in 2021, and the case is still in the pre-trial discovery stage.
This story has been updated with additional events.
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