Attorney Sidney Powell pleaded guilty Thursday to reduced charges for attempting to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election in Georgia. In doing so, he became the second defendant in the sprawling case to reach an agreement with prosecutors.
Ms. Powell, who was charged along with Mr. Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, entered the plea just a day before jury selection was set to begin in her trial. She pleaded guilty to six offenses charging her with conspiracy to deliberately disrupt the performance of election duties.
As part of the deal, she will be placed on probation for six years, fined $6,000 and required to write a letter of apology to Georgia and its residents. She also agreed to testify truthfully against her co-defendants at future trials.
Ms Powell was initially charged with racketeering and six other charges as part of a vast 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 election equipment at an elections office in rural Georgia.
The plea deal makes Ms. Powell the highest-profile public figure to cooperate with prosecutors investigating Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Her cooperation in the case and participation in strategy discussions threaten to expose the former president and provide insight into what he said and did in the critical post-election period.
Above all, the guilty plea is a remarkable turnaround for a lawyer who, perhaps more than anyone else, has vigorously advanced baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election, despite extensive evidence to the contrary. She also has important knowledge about high-profile events, including a press conference she attended on behalf of Mr. Trump and his campaign shortly after the election, and a White House meeting she attended in mid-December 2020, where prosecutors said ways to overturn the outcome of influence the elections were discussed.
John Fishwick, a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, called Ms. Powell’s plea a “significant victory” for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“This is someone who was behind these allegations and an attorney who is pleading guilty,” he said. “This is very important.”
Mr. Fishwick also said Ms. Powell’s plea is helpful to Jack Smith, the Justice Department’s special counsel.
Ms. Powell is listed, though not by name, as one of six unindicted co-conspirators in Mr. Smith’s federal case, who accuses Mr. Trump of plotting to overturn the election. That complaint notes how Mr. Trump had privately acknowledged to others that Ms. Powell’s baseless claims of election fraud were “insane,” but nevertheless promoted and embraced a lawsuit Ms. Powell filed against the state of Georgia, which included what according to prosecutors it was. ‘far-fetched’ and unsubstantiated claims.
Barry Coburn, a Washington-based lawyer for Ms. Powell, declined to comment Thursday.
Ms. Powell gained notoriety for threatening to “release the Kraken” in a Fox Business interview in November 2020, invoking a mythical sea monster as she spoke about a lawsuit she planned to file to overturn the results of the presidential election to challenge. Similar lawsuits she filed in several states were immediately dismissed.
She was about to appear in court with attorney Kenneth Chesebro, after both filed a motion for a speedy trial. Jury selection was still scheduled to begin Friday, so Mr. Chesebro would appear in court alone, although prosecutors previously said they also planned to explore the possibility of offering him a plea deal.
Jury selection was scheduled to begin on Friday. Mr. Chesebro’s lawyers did not immediately respond Thursday to messages seeking comment on whether he would also accept a settlement.
A less prominent defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, pleaded guilty to five felonies last month. He was sentenced to five years’ probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead lawyer in the Georgia case, expressed confidence that Ms. Powell’s plea would not harm his own client’s case.
“Relying on truthful testimony in the Fulton County case will be beneficial to my overall defense strategy,” he said.
Prosecutors allege that Ms. Powell conspired with Mr. Hall and others to gain unauthorized access to election equipment and hired computer forensics firm SullivanStrickler to send a team to Coffee County, in South Georgia, to extract software and data from voting machines and computers there to copy. The indictment alleges that an unnamed individual 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 attorney with ties to Ms. Powell and the Trump campaign.
No trial dates have yet been set for the 16 remaining suspects, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for Trump, and Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff.
Ms. Willis has drawn some criticism for her sweeping indictment and use of the state’s anti-racketeering law to charge so many suspects. Some people had speculated that if her case did not go well it could undermine Mr Smith’s case, Mr Fishwick said.
“This certainly shows that at least, as of today, it is not undermining it. In fact it strengthens his case,” Mr Fishwick said.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta contributed to this report.
