Sidney Powell, one of 18 co-defendants in former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Georgia, has taken a plea deal in which she has agreed to testify in the case.
She is pleading guilty to six misdemeanor charges, according to the agreement read in court Thursday. She will get 12 months of probation for each count, as well as a $6,000 fine.
As part of the agreement, Powell must “testify truthfully about any co-defendants” involved in the case and “provide all documents to the district attorney’s office” relevant to their case against the other co-defendants, according to Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead counsel in the Georgia case, responded to Powell’s plea deal by telling ABC News in a statement, “Assuming truthful testimony in the Fulton County case, it will be favorable to my overall defense strategy.”
Powell’s plea comes a day before she was scheduled to go on trial along with co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro.
Chesebro, according to sources, last month rejected a similar plea deal with the state, ABC News was first to report yesterday.
Regarding Powell’s plea deal, former Georgia prosecutor Chris Timmons told ABC News, “From the D.A.’s Office’s perspective, it can help them in a number of ways. It focuses the trial to acts that are relevant to Mr. Chesebro. It also means the State’s witnesses are facing one cross examination instead of two.”
Sidney Powell, attorney for President Donald Trump, conducts a news conference at the Republican National Committee on lawsuits regarding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, Nov. 19, 2020.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
Prosecutors accused Powell, a former Trump campaign attorney, of helping tamper with voting machines in Coffee County as part of efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
She is not to “have any communication” with any of the co-defendants in the case or members of the media, per the terms of her agreement.
She will also have to write an apology letter to the people of the state of Georgia, “which you have already satisfied,” McAfee said during Thursday’s court proceeding.
Powell, Chesebro, Trump, and 16 others pleaded not guilty in August to all charges in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state of Georgia.
Powell is the second defendant in the case to strike a plea agreement after Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall last month took a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to tampering with voting machine equipment and received probation in exchange for agreeing to testify at the trial of other co-defendants.
Chesebro, an attorney, is facing seven counts after prosecutors said he drafted a strategy to use so-called “alternate electors” to prevent Joe Biden from receiving 270 electoral votes in the 2020 election, according to the indictment.
Jury selection in his case is scheduled to get underway Friday.
