In a significant turn of events, Sidney Powell, once a prominent attorney for Donald Trump, has entered a guilty plea in the Georgia election subversion case just 24 hours before her highly anticipated trial was slated to begin.
Powell’s guilty plea implicates her in the January 2021 breach of election systems in rural Coffee County, Georgia. Collaborating with local GOP officials, Powell and a group of Trump supporters accessed and copied information from the county’s election systems in an attempt to substantiate claims of election rigging against Trump.
As part of her plea deal, Fulton County prosecutors are recommending a six-year probation sentence. Powell will also be compelled to testify at future trials, issue a public apology to the citizens of Georgia, pay nearly $9,000 in restitution and fines, and hand over pertinent documents.
Notably absent from the plea documents is any mention of Trump, her co-defendant in the Fulton County case. Despite Powell’s previous endorsement of conspiracy theories surrounding election fraud, this guilty plea makes her the second individual in the sprawling racketeering case to admit wrongdoing. Last month, bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded guilty and agreed to testify in subsequent trials. The remaining 17 defendants, including Trump, continue to maintain their not guilty pleas.
Powell’s admission details actions taken post the 2020 election, including tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines, as well as the unauthorized appropriation of information from Dominion Voting Systems Corporation. She also confesses to hiring a data forensics firm to unlawfully access government computers in Coffee County for the examination of personal voter data.
While Powell’s legal team vehemently rejected claims of her orchestrating the Coffee County breach, her sudden guilty plea has thrown a curveball into the trial proceedings. Initially set to commence with jury selection for Powell and co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro, it now appears that Chesebro will face trial alone.
Beyond the Georgia case, Powell faces continued legal challenges as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal election subversion case filed against Trump. Led by special counsel Jack Smith, this investigation is still ongoing. Powell is also entangled in substantial defamation lawsuits from Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, both accusing her of falsely implicating them in rigging the 2020 election against Trump. These lawsuits, initiated in 2021, are currently in the pre-trial discovery phase.
