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Trump attorney Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election subversion case | CNN Politics (www.cnn.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case, one day before her trial was set to start.

Edit:

Former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case, one day before her trial was set to start.

Fulton County prosecutors are recommending a sentence of six years probation. Powell will also be required to testify at future trials and write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia.

As part of her guilty plea, Powell is admitting her role in the January 2021 breach of election systems in rural Coffee County, Georgia. With the help of local GOP officials, a group of Trump supporters accessed and copied information from the county’s election systems in hopes of somehow proving that the election was rigged against Trump.

Her attorneys had vehemently rejected prosecutors’ claims that she orchestrated the Coffee County breach. They’ve said at pretrial hearings that prosecutors are “incorrect” and that “the evidence will show that she was not the driving force behind” the incident.

Powell is now the second person in the sprawling racketeering case to plead guilty. Bail bondsman Scott Hall last month pleaded guilty and agreed to testify at future trials. The other 17 defendants, including Trump, have pleaded not guilty.

Pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro’s trial is slated to begin Friday with jury selection.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They're pursuing this case under the RICO act, and thus will be charging any of the co-conspirators with the charges brought forth to any other co-conspirators; at least this is how I understand it.

I'm no legal expert, so I can't really explain the details, though. However, it does seem that convictions of other defendants will strengthen their case against subsequent defendants.

[–] Changetheview 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One of the most important characteristics to RICO charges is that you usually have to establish evidence of a criminal enterprise. So these charges against related persons that result in guilty pleas or convictions are then used as evidence in the RICO case against others.

Under the RICO charge, the prosecution can use the related convictions against others to establish wrongdoing by another actor/defendant. So even if there is not a lot of direct evidence against someone, all of the charges from the people they’re connected to are used as evidence in a RICO charge prosecution.

It’s basically to make sure that a mob boss can’t get away free because they never actually held the gun or were at the crime scene. If they’re deeply intertwined with tons of criminal acts, RICO laws make sure they can be held accountable even without being at the scene or personally doing anything.

It doesn’t necessarily force the prosecutors to charge everyone with the same crimes. It’s just a useful tool to use against those who do a decent job at avoiding direct evidence against themselves.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Great description, thank you for clarifying.