Second Trump co-defendant in Georgia election case pleads guilty

WASHINGTON: A second co-defendant of Donald Trump pleaded guilty Thursday in the case alleging a criminal conspiracy to overturn the former US president’s 2020 election loss in the state of Georgia.

Sidney Powell, a Trump campaign attorney who pushed fringe theories about manipulation of voting machines, was indicted in August along with the former president and 17 others.

In a plea deal reached just days before her trial was scheduled to begin, Powell pleaded guilty to six election-related charges.

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She was sentenced to six years of probation by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee after pleading guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties.

Powell, who was originally charged with racketeering, a felony, and other offenses, agreed as part of the plea agreement to testify at the upcoming trials of her co-defendants in the case.

Nicknamed “The Kraken” after the movie monster from “Clash of the Titans,” Powell was briefly considered by Trump for the job of special counsel to investigate the election, but was ultimately sanctioned for misconduct and sued multiple times for defamation.

Powell is the second co-defendant in the sprawling racketeering case to enter a guilty plea.

Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to interfere with the performance of election duties.

Powell and Hall were among the co-defendants charged with tampering with voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia, following the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has pleaded not guilty to charges of involvement in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, where Biden won by some 12,000 votes.

The twice-impeached former president also faces federal charges for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and is to go on trial in that case in Washington in March 2024.