Trump Lawyers Powell, Chesebro Plead Guilty in Georgia
There's been unexpected movement this week in the Georgia state election subversion trial against Donald Trump and 18 of his cronies. Two of those cronies pleaded guilty this week. Sidney Powell, the Trump lawyer who propagated and litigated some of his campaign's wilder claims about massive vote fraud leading up to the January 6 mob attack on the US Capitol, pleaded guilty on Thursday (CNN.com story). She pleaded to 6 misdemeanors involving tampering with voting machines and illegally accessing voting data in Georgia. Following her surprise about-face with the plea, Trump crony Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who is regarded as an architect of the fake electors scheme, on Friday made an equally surprising U-turn from proclaiming his innocence to pleading guilty to single felony charge (CNN.com story).
These are not the first guilty pleas in the case. Last month local bail bondsman Scott Hall plead guilty to 5 charges (CNN.com story). Hall was just a bit player in the conspiracy, though. He was a gung-ho local Trump supporter who was rooked by highly placed operatives into illegally entering a county voting office and stealing vote data. Powell and Chesebro are two of those highly placed operatives. They worked with Trump in the White House.
Now three dominoes have fallen along the path leading to Trump in this case. The first one, Hall's plea, wasn't a big one. But his testimony likely helped prosecutors with evidence to get a plea deal with Powell, who had long maintained her innocence. And that in turn rapidly toppled the third domino, Chesebro's guilty plea. This is typical of how conspiracies unravel. How many more dominoes will topple next?
These are not the first guilty pleas in the case. Last month local bail bondsman Scott Hall plead guilty to 5 charges (CNN.com story). Hall was just a bit player in the conspiracy, though. He was a gung-ho local Trump supporter who was rooked by highly placed operatives into illegally entering a county voting office and stealing vote data. Powell and Chesebro are two of those highly placed operatives. They worked with Trump in the White House.
Now three dominoes have fallen along the path leading to Trump in this case. The first one, Hall's plea, wasn't a big one. But his testimony likely helped prosecutors with evidence to get a plea deal with Powell, who had long maintained her innocence. And that in turn rapidly toppled the third domino, Chesebro's guilty plea. This is typical of how conspiracies unravel. How many more dominoes will topple next?