Current:Home > InvestSidney Powell pleads guilty in case over efforts to overturn Trump’s Georgia loss and gets probation -Wealthify
Sidney Powell pleads guilty in case over efforts to overturn Trump’s Georgia loss and gets probation
View
Date:2025-04-15 17:37:02
ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyer Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to reduced charges Thursday over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia, becoming the second defendant in the sprawling case to reach a deal with prosecutors.
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. She also agreed to testify truthfully against her co-defendants at future trials.
Related coverage
Trump and 18 allies charged in Georgia election meddling as former president faces 4th criminal case
How a law associated with mobsters is central to charges against Trump
Georgia judge rules that Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro can be tried together starting Oct. 23
Powell, 68, was initially charged with racketeering and six other counts as part of a wide-ranging scheme to keep the Republican president in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say she also participated in an unauthorized breach of elections equipment in a rural Georgia county elections office.
The acceptance of a plea deal is a remarkable about-face for a lawyer who, perhaps more than anyone else, strenuously pushed baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election in the face of extensive evidence to the contrary. If prosecutors compel her to testify, she could provide insight on a news conference she participated in on behalf of Trump and his campaign shortly after the election and on a White House meeting she attended in mid-December of that year during which strategies and theories to influence the outcome of the election were discussed.
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. The development means that Chesebro will go on trial by himself, though prosecutors said earlier that they also planned to look into the possibility of offering him a plea deal.
Barry Coburn, a Washington-based lawyer for Powell, declined to comment on Thursday.
A lower-profile defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, last month pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
Prosecutors allege that Powell conspired with Hall and others to access election equipment without authorization and hired computer forensics firm SullivanStrickler to send a team to Coffee County, in south Georgia, to copy software and data from voting machines and computers there. The indictment says a person who is not named sent an email to a top SullivanStrickler executive and instructed him to send all data copied from Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Coffee County to an unidentified lawyer associated with Powell and the Trump campaign.
veryGood! (51495)
Related
- Louvre will undergo expansion and restoration project, Macron says
- Oaths and pledges have been routine for political officials. That’s changing in a polarized America
- An oil boom, a property slump and dental deflation
- Police: 7 farmworkers in van, 1 pickup driver killed in head-on crash in California farming region
- NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
- Embattled superintendent overseeing Las Vegas-area public schools steps down
- Some Arizona customers to see monthly fees increase for rooftop solar, advocates criticize rate hike
- Yale joins other top colleges in again requiring SAT scores, saying it will help poor applicants
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- South Carolina Welcomes Multibillion Dollar Electric Vehicle Projects, Even Though Many Echo Trump’s Harsh EV Critiques
Ranking
- Dick Vitale announces he is cancer free: 'Santa Claus came early'
- Woman killed during a celebration of Chiefs’ Super Bowl win to be remembered at funeral
- LA Dodgers' 2024 hype hits fever pitch as team takes field for first spring training games
- Love Is Blind's Chelsea Reveals What She Said to Megan Fox After Controversial Comparison
- South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
- Louisiana advances a bill expanding death penalty methods in an effort to resume executions
- U.S. lunar lander is on its side with some antennas covered up, the company says
- Yankees' Alex Verdugo responds to scorching comments from ex-Red Sox star Jonathan Papelbon
Recommendation
Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast
Bill headed to South Dakota governor would allow museum’s taxidermy animals to find new homes
Lulus’ Buy 3-Get-1 Free Sale Includes Elegant & Stylish Dresses, Starting at $15
Lifetime’s Wendy Williams documentary will air this weekend after effort to block broadcast fails
Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
The EU is watching Albania’s deal to hold asylum seekers for Italy. Rights activists are worried
Vanessa Hudgens, Cole Tucker & More Couples Who Proved Love Is the Real Prize at the SAG Awards
Celebrity owl Flaco dies a year after becoming beloved by New York City for zoo escape