Sidney Powell, a member of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 legal team, pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts in Georgia state court related to alleged racketeering and election fraud, as well as stealing proprietary data and breaching voting equipment.
Prior to pleading guilty, Powell and her lawyer unsuccessfully filed numerous motions attempting to dismiss the charges, claiming she did not represent Trump or his campaign following the 2020 election. Powell was scheduled to be tried late next week.
Critics say that the charges, which were imposed by Fulton County Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis, are examples of “lawfare” meant to harass Trump and his allies with bogus accusations.
As part of the terms of her plea, Powell admitted to participating in an election system breach “for the purpose of willfully tampering with electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines” in Coffee County, Georgia, “with the intention of taking and appropriating information, data, and software, the property of Dominion Voting Systems Corporation,” to build a case that the 2020 election was stolen, according to court filings.
Powell will also be forced to testify at future trials surrounding the 2020 election in Georgia, write an apology letter to the citizens of the state, turn over relevant documents, pay some $9,000 in fines and restitution, and serve six years of probation.
Some conservatives contend that the election interference charges are intentionally inflated to prevent Trump from winning the Republican nomination for the 2024 election. The former commander-in-chief also faces felony charges in New York City for alleged hush money payments and was found guilty for tax fraud by a jury in Manhattan.
Powell is the second defendant in the Georgia racketeering case to plead guilty; bail bondsman Scott Hall likewise pleaded guilty last month and has also agreed to testify at future trials. So far, all seventeen other defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Powell is also an unindicted co-conspirator in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal election fraud case alleging Trump and his allies attempted to overturn the 2020 election, though she has not been formally charged.
Trump was not mentioned by name in the guilty plea. The only other defendant in the case mentioned by name was Misty Hampton, the Coffee County elections supervisor during the 2020 election.
Trump’s head attorney in the Georgia case, Steve Sadow, said that Powell’s plea would be positive for his case. “Assuming truthful testimony in the Fulton County case, it will be favorable to my overall defense strategy,” he said.
