Published October 21, 2023
The latest guilty pleas from two key allies in Donald Trump’s high-profile Georgia election interference case put new pressure on the former president and raise questions about whether his once-loyal associates may one day flip on him.
Two attorneys, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty to related crimes this week and agreed to testify against other defendants. They had been charged with playing separate roles in an alleged multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Coming after a third defendant, Scott Hall, pleaded guilty in September, their deals bolster the weapons in prosecutors’ toolbox, and may pressure other defendants to flip — a move that would raise the legal stakes for Trump.
”Once you get a couple people pleading, it starts sort of an avalanche of pleas,” said Chandelle Summer, a Georgia attorney who previously worked as both a prosecutor and public defender in the state.
In addition to agreeing to testify, Chesebro, Powell, and Hall will turn over relevant documents to the state of Georgia, and are prohibited from communicating with witnesses or defendants in the case.
Norman Eisen, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who served as special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2020, said information from the three former Trump associates, could bolster the government’s evidence in another pending Trump trial — federal election meddling case, which is scheduled to start in March in Washington.
“Both Powell and Chesebro were unindicted co-conspirators in the federal case, so they’re central to it,” Eisen said. “It is ominous for the other defendants in the state or federal cases, above all Donald Trump.”
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SOURCE: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/10/21/trump-co-defendant-guilty-pleas-georgia-election-powell-chesebro/71256568007/
RELATED: Jan. 6 defense lawyers ‘gobsmacked’ by Trump ally’s plea deal
Many rioters who stormed the Capitol received long prison sentences. Sidney Powell, an architect of the effort to subvert the election, negotiated a misdemeanor plea deal and cooperation agreement.
“There are J6 defendants with no priors who’ve served jail time. … It’s obscene given that [Sidney Powell] was a prominent attorney and was one of the leading and loudest of the ‘stolen election’ BS,” said defense attorney Carmen Hernandez of Powell’s plea deal. | Francis Chung/POLITICO
Published October 21, 2023
When Sidney Powell, a top ally of Donald Trump, pleaded guilty Thursday to crimes associated with the 2020 election, lawyers for many Jan. 6 defendants were stunned by her relatively meager sentence: six years of probation and a modest fine.
For years, those lawyers — and some judges — have lamented that the thousands who breached the Capitol were used as pawns and dupes by Trump, Powell and their associates in a bid to subvert the election. So Powell’s plea was the first taste of accountability for Trump’s inner circle. Yet her punishment, Jan. 6 defense lawyers noted, paled in comparison to even some of the low-level offenders who entered the Capitol that day and now face consequences that may dog them for life.
“Gobsmacked is certainly an appropriate description considering the sentences that have been imposed against others who believed the lies spread by Donald Trump, Sidney Powell and others,” said Bjorn Brunvand, whose client Robert Palmer was sentenced by Judge Tanya Chutkan to 63 months in prison for assaulting officers at the U.S. Capitol. “The rules we all share are not applied equitably to all. Frequently, deals are made with the highest-ranking players in criminal conspiracies, while the pawns receive the most significant sentences.”
Powell’s mild sentence was a reflection of an apparent cooperation deal she struck with prosecutors. Another close Trump ally, Kenneth Chesebro, entered a similar plea deal on Friday that will allow him to avoid prison. (Brunvand and other lawyers for Jan. 6 defendants spoke with POLITICO before news emerged of Chesebro’s plea.)
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SOURCE: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/20/sidney-powell-plea-deal-gobsmacked-00122795
RELATED: Chesebro attorney argues client never believed Trump’s ‘big lie’ of election fraud
Kenneth Chesebro speaks to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee during a hearing where Chesebro accepted a plea deal from the Fulton County District Attorney at the Fulton County Courthouse Friday, Oct. 20, 2023 in Atlanta. Chesebro has pleaded guilty to a felony just as jury selection was getting underway in his trial on charges accusing him of participating in efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s loss in Georgia’s 2020 election. (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP)
Published October 21, 2023
Kenneth Chesebro, one of former President Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the George election fraud case, didn’t truly believe the 2020 election was stolen, according to his attorney.
“First of all, Mr. Chesebro never believed in ‘The Big Lie,’” attorney Scott Grubmann said Saturday in an interview on MSNBC. “If you ask Mr. Chesebro today who won the 2020 presidential election, he would say Joe Biden.”
Chesebro became the second of Trump’s former lawyers to accept a plea agreement in the case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to file false documents relating to his attempts to set up a regime of fake electoral college votes in Georgia. His trial was scheduled to start Monday.
Prosecutors claimed the former lawyer wrote legal memos on behalf of the Trump campaign creating a false legal backing for the fake elector scheme.
As part of the plea, the former lawyer agreed to testify in future cases if called upon. That would include the trial of former President Trump, scheduled for early next year.
