WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A former lawyer for Donald Trump on Thursday pleaded guilty to aiding the former U.S. president's efforts to overturn his election defeat in the state of Georgia, agreeing to testify against him if called.
The lawyer, Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, a misdemeanor charge. She agreed to testify against Trump and the other 16 co-defendants in the case if prosecutors ask her too.
The Georgia case is one of four concurrent criminal cases that Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing, and one of two specifically focused on his attempts to overturn his election defeat. Trump continues to falsely claim his loss was the result of fraud.
Powell's plea came just days before she was set to go to trial beginning on Monday on charges including racketeering and conspiracy to commit election fraud.
A lawyer for Powell did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to a sweeping Fulton County, Georgia, indictment charging him with violating the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, act in his efforts to overturn his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Powell admitted to plotting to unlawfully access secure election machines in rural Coffee County in southeastern Georgia in January 2021. The plea agreement calls for her to be sentenced to six years of probation.
Powell's guilty plea is a significant victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose team has now gained the cooperation of a lawyer closely tied to Trump's efforts to reverse his election defeat.
Powell represented Trump following the 2020 presidential election and helped spread his false claims that the election had been marred by widespread voter fraud. She famously threatened to "release the kraken," a mythological sea monster.
Prosecutors said Powell and other co-defendants tampered with electronic ballot markers and accessed data belonging to Dominion Voting Systems, the voting machine company that Powell and other Trump allies falsely claimed helped rig the election against Trump.
Powell's attorneys contested the charges in legal motions ahead of trial, arguing that access to voting equipment in Coffee County had been authorized.
Powell was scheduled to be tried alongside Kenneth Chesebro, another lawyer who assisted Trump following the election.
If Chesebro goes ahead with trial, Trump could gain a strategic advantage in preparing for his own upcoming Georgia trial, since his attorneys would get a preview of much of the case against him.
Ok...but, didn't she have a case? Why plead guilty?
she ran out of money to defend herself and didn't want 6 years in prison irrespective of whether she got a fair trial or not?????
Ok...but why agree to testify against Trump? For a lesser charge? Seems convoluted.
same reason a poor man agrees to criminal charges and probation. He just wants to get home and they threatened to imprison him.
Why did Flynn plead guilty, and Powell got him off?
wait..you're saying that the feds win 99.9% of their cases against people because they always have the best "case"?
Lol...ok got me there....so it would have cost her millions in legal fees and maybe still be convicted...but to agree to testify against Trump? Something is fishy here.
Ya don't see Trump pleading guilty.
she agreed to testify "truthfully" in future cases. nothing about "testifying against trump". She can be called up to witness stand and drop some truth bombs, until they dismiss her.
yes it's so insane that in the one in a million times that you get the feds to drop their in case like with the Flynn/Sidney case, then they change law, so that the Judge picks of the pieces and continues the case against Flynn. Clown World!!!