Sidney Powell (right) speaks next to former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2020,when they were Donald Trump’s lawyers.Credit:AP
The unexpected decision makes Powell the second of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia racketeering case to accept a plea deal. The first was bail bondsman Scott Hall,who last month admitted he had helped to breach election equipment and steal voter data in Coffee County.
Under the terms of her deal,Powell will serve six years of probation,pay a fine of $US6000 ($9500) and will have to write an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. She is also required to hand over documents and testify truthfully at the future trials of her co-defendants if she is called as a witness.
This could be extremely damning for Trump because Powell,along with disgraced lawyer Rudy Giuliani,was part of the legal team that was central to the former president’s bid to stay in power,and she has first-hand knowledge of theplot to overturn Biden’s election victory.
For instance,in an infamous White House meeting convened by Trump on December 18,2020,Powell and former national security adviser Michael Flynn floated outrageous suggestions such as using the military to seize voting machines,or getting Trump to invoke martial law to overturn the election.
At one stage,Trump even suggested appointing Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud – something that many of his official White House aides rejected at the time.
“I was vehemently opposed. I didn’t think she should be appointed to anything,” former White House counsel Pat Cipollone told the January 6 select committee which investigated the Capitol insurrection.