CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Thursday that Sidney Powell’s guilty plea could be “devastating” for former President Donald Trump.
Powell, Trump’s former attorney, pleaded guilty to several misdemeanor charges in the Georgia 2020 election case one day before jury selection was scheduled for her Oct. 23 trial date with co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro. Powell is required to testify against co-defendants in future proceedings and write an apology letter as part of her plea deal. Prosecutors have recommended Powell receive 12 months’ probation for each of the six charges brought against her, and that she pay a $6,000 fine and $2,700 restitution to the state of Georgia.
Honig called the plea deal a “major breakthrough for prosecutors.”
“This is a major breakthrough for prosecutors, potentially a devastating development for Donald Trump, because what’s going to happen now is Sidney Powell is going to testify for prosecutors in Georgia and, presumably, she’ll also be prepared to testify for Jack Smith in his federal case in Washington, D.C,” Honig said. “She’s not indicted in that case, but she’s listed as a co-conspirator in that case. She’s going to be able to provide insider information that could be really devastating towards Donald Trump.”
“She was in the room where some things, if not happened, were at least discussed, Elie. She was part of some of these contentious meetings that allegedly took place in the White House before Jan. 6. How can prosecutors now use her?” co-host John Berman asked. (RELATED: Georgia Judge Denies Sidney Powell’s Effort To Dismiss Racketeering Case Charges)
“So, you use her to bring your jury into that very room. She will be the guide. She will be the narrator. She will be able to say, ‘I was in this room with Donald Trump, with Rudy Giuliani. Here’s what we discussed. Here’s who said what. Here’s what we knew.’ And John, really importantly, in order to take this plea in this deal, Sidney Powell is going to have to acknowledge ‘what we did was criminal. It was illegal, it was a crime.’ And so that’s going to lend a lot of credibility, I think, obviously, to prosecutors’ assertions that what Donald Trump did was knowingly a crime, was an intentional crime.”
Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties. She was originally indicted on two felony counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud and four other felony conspiracy counts, as well as violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.