Today, Sidney Powell accepted a plea deal from the Fulton County District Attorney, in which he pleads guilty to six counts of “conspiracy to commit willful interference with election duties.”
These are all misdemeanors. He faces six years of probation, a $6,000 fine and must pay $2,700 in restitution.
Call it a win for the defense. Here’s why.
Powell was charged with seven felony counts: conspiracy to violate the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) statute; two counts of conspiracy to commit electoral fraud; conspiracy to commit computer theft, trespassing and invasion of privacy; and conspiracy to defraud the state.
These charges are felonies that carry serious penalties. A conviction under Georgia’s RICO conspiracy statute, for example, requires a sentence of between five and 20 years in prison. look Ga. Code Ann. § 16-14-5.
This brings us to our second point: the risk of conviction.
Let me start by saying that I believe that Powell is innocent, that there was no RICO conspiracy by her or anyone else, that the indictment, along with all the overt acts in support of the conspiracy, is a farce. (More on the charged conduct and RICO below.) That this case should never have been brought, which criminalizes political conduct. But I’m not a Fulton County juror. And you probably aren’t either.
When these cases go to trial (at this time, no one knows if Kenneth Chesebro will be offered, or accept, a plea deal, or if they will go to trial on October 23), the defendants will face a jury that is about 75% Democrat and only 25% Republican. The juries will salivate to the opportunity to convict anyone associated with Donald Trump. We’ve seen it in DC with the January 6 defendants. We’ve seen it with the anti-Trump activist who he lied to serve on Roger Stone’s jury. They don’t care about justice. He is political.
Adding to the pressure is the cost and expense of testing. In September, Fulton County district attorneys estimated this case would take four months. There would be hundreds of witnesses, even before the defense got to its case-in-chief. This is the kind of trial that could bankrupt a defendant.
The Fulton County District Attorney knows this and probably threatened the excessively long trial to increase the pressure on Powell and Chesebro (the only two defendants who asked for a speedy trial) to accept a plea deal. It’s just one more example of the unethical behavior of Fulton County prosecutor zealots, who have engaged in very public wrongdoing to withhold exculpatory evidence from the grand jury (in violation of a prosecutor’s duty to do justice) lie about Georgia law to the trial judge. (We add that the plea agreement further demonstrates unethical behavior by showing that prosecutors overcharged Powell.)
The deal also shows Fulton County prosecutors don’t want to go to trial right now. Spending four months in court and presenting hundreds of witnesses would only help Donald Trump’s defense. There would be no surprises at Trump’s trial: all the witnesses would be on the record, the prosecution’s weaknesses would be exposed.
However, with all of these factors at play, it’s no surprise that a plea deal is the best option. This is true even when you are innocent. The principle is great, but the system does not work for the innocent. Judgment is a terrible place to get to the truth. It is an even worse place for justice. Better to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and go home than face the near certainty of 5+ years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
This brings us to another important matter: the allegations that Powell is now “cooperating” against Donald Trump.
Tim Pool, for example said Powell would “blame everything on Trump.” Attorney Elie Honig, perhaps the most obtuse legal commentator on cable news, a CNN He said this was a “huge breakthrough for prosecutors” in their case against Trump. He further alleged:
“He’s going to have to admit that, ‘yes, we were trying to steal the election, yes, he knew it was illegal, and yes, it was in fact a crime,'” Honig said. “All of this is at stake because of his testimony against the other 17 co-defendants, including Donald Trump.”
We’re not buying it. Let’s break down why.
First, Honig (and many others) claim, wrongly, that Powell has no choice but to implicate Trump in the RICO conspiracy.
These predictions challenge the fact that Powell he didn’t pleads guilty to the main charge against Trump: the RICO conspiracy. she he didn’t admitting he was part of a criminal enterprise with Trump, et al. to “illegally” change the results of the 2020 election. She he didn’t admit that he conspired to violate Georgia’s RICO statute with Trump or anyone else.
Instead, their settlement is limited and relates only to conduct that took place in Coffee County, Georgia, where contractors accessed voting machines with the permission of local officials. Let’s add a few words about these charges: Coffee County officials issued a written invitation to contractors from SullivanStrickler Tech Group to access their voting machines. Powell did not authorize these actions; approved the payment to SullivanStrickler after the fact. Of course, Fulton County maintains that local officials lacked the authority to grant access to the voting machines, making their entire actions illegal. (Authority would have been an issue in Powell’s trial.) In any event, Fulton County has no evidence that Powell or anyone from SullivanStrickler knew that Coffee County officials had no such authority.
But Fulton County is not accusing Trump of directing, being involved in, or even knowing what happened in Coffee County. So Powell’s plea to the Coffee County charges does not, and will not, directly implicate Trump.
Second, there are claims that Powell might have other information this will hurt Trump. No one has offered concrete details; even The New York Times admitted that “it’s not clear what Ms. Powell might say about Mr. Trump if called to testify against him.”
One topic could be the December 18, 2020 meeting at the White House with President Trump, General Flynn, Sidney Powell, Emily Newman and Patrick Byrne. However, Powell is unlikely to offer anything new about this meeting. He was the subject of numerous depositions to the House Select Committee to investigate on January 6. Powell was fired over this issue. So was Byrne. Ideas were floated during that perfectly legal meeting, none of them criminal, including Powell’s proposal that Trump secure voting machines and
“Have them inspected by a professional, non-partisan, bipartisan panel of experts in a transparent manner to get any evidence that was on these machines to solve the problem, in hopes of, you know, putting it all on the bed, whichever way it came out.”
As for the point of what Powell might know, or what she might testify, remember that Trump’s legal team (Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani) declassified her in late November 2020. Powell filed cases in Michigan and other sites, while the Trump team pursued their own legal strategies. There was no meeting of minds between the two camps. In terms of litigation strategy, Powell was Excluded of what Trump’s legal team was doing. The indictment does not suggest that Powell had such extensive contact with Trump that he could testify to his election certification efforts on Jan. 6 or his state of mind regarding the 2020 election. value to offer Fulton County prosecutors against Trump.
Finally, the nature of the RICO conspiracy charge against Trump does not require Powell’s cooperation.
To explain, the RICO conspiracy charge requires: (1) a conspiracy to violate Georgia’s RICO statute; and (2) any member of the enterprise to commit “any act open to carrying out the object of the conspiracy.” Ga. Code Ann. § 16-14-4.
The State’s theory of the case is that Trump, et al. conspired to illegally change the results of the 2020 election. Thus, to prove RICO conspiracy, all they need is an overt act by any member of the enterprise (it could be any of the 19 defendants or the numerous co-conspirators not defendants).
Now take a look at the indictment. It alleges 161 overt acts that were done to further the object of the conspiracy (the alleged “illegal” effort to change the results of the 2020 election), from Trump’s tweets to various legal memos from lawyers of Trump (and other lawyers) interpreting the election. College Act or how Vice President Pence should proceed with the certification on January 6, 2021 in Trump’s calls with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Even if Powell were off the case, even if he were removed from the indictment and the memory of prosecutors was wiped, they would still have more than 150 open acts they say affected the alleged conspiracy. And under Georgia law, they just have to show up an open act to support the RICO conspiracy charge.
Our point is that Powell is not an essential witness to prove the State’s case against Trump. What he pleaded to, the Coffee County charges, have nothing to do with Trump. Speculation that she will cooperate against Trump, or somehow implicate Trump in the RICO conspiracy, is not supported by the facts. After all, she pleaded not guilty to being part of a RICO conspiracy.
English 
Español de Venezuela 