A lesser-known co-defendant in the Fulton County, Georgia, election case that has ensnared former President Donald Trump and more than a dozen others has said that he won’t cooperate in the case.
Rev. Stephen Cliffgard Lee, a pastor at Living Word Lutheran Church in Orland Park, was indicted in August along with 18 others, including President Trump, in Georgia. The Illinois-based pastor faces charges of racketeering, influencing a witness, and conspiracy to solicit false statements and writings. He has pleaded not guilty.
Several of the defendants in the case, including former Trump campaign attorney Jena Ellis and attorney Sidney Powell, have entered guilty pleas in deals with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Mr. Lee said that if he’s convicted, he faces a minimum of five years in a Georgia prison, the paper reported.
The pastor said his legal fees could cost about $150,000, and he has to spend months in Georgia during his trial, although he’s attempting to sever his case from the others’ cases.
“That’s the cost of saying ‘not guilty,’” his lawyer, David Shestokas, said at the event.
The lawyer said the case against Mr. Lee is a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment, including violating his rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion.
“What’s at stake here is not just Pastor Lee,” Mr. Shestokas said. “It’s an attack on all the rights in the First Amendment of our Constitution.”
Prosecutors said Mr. Lee, 71, allegedly worked with others to try to pressure Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman and her daughter after President Trump and his allies said they pulled fraudulent ballots from a suitcase during the vote count in Fulton County. Officials have accused Mr. Lee of knocking on Ms. Freeman’s door, causing her to call 911 three times.
Another defendant in the case, Harrison Floyd, who served as director of Black Voices for Trump, is accused of recruiting Mr. Lee to arrange a meeting with Ms. Freeman and Chicago-based publicist Trevian Kutti. Prosecutors said Ms. Kutti met with Ms. Freeman at a police precinct, where she brought Mr. Floyd into the conversation on speakerphone. Prosecutors also alleged the publicist presented herself as someone who could help Ms. Freeman but then pressured her to make statements that she engaged in election fraud.
But Mr. Lee’s lawyer said the pastor’s actions don’t amount to criminal activity.
Other Defendants Enter Pleas
Ms. Powell, who made bombastic proclamations about election irregularities during the 2020 election, was sentenced on Oct. 19 to six years of probation after pleading guilty to conspiring to interfere with the performance of election duties following the 2020 presidential election. She also paid a fine.Responding to her guilty plea, President Trump wrote on his Truth Social account last month that she was never his attorney and “she would have been conflicted” if she had been. In court papers filed earlier this year, Ms. Powell’s attorneys also said she never was officially retained by the Trump 2020 campaign.
At about the same time, Ms. Ellis pleaded guilty to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. Like the other defendants, she had been facing charges of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and soliciting the violation of oath by a public officer, both felonies.
Another lawyer who was charged, Kenneth Chesebro, pleaded guilty to a felony as jury selection was getting underway in his trial. He pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents in a last-minute deal, with prosecutors agreeing to dismiss the other charges.
A lower-profile defendant in the case, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, pleaded guilty last month to five misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to five years of probation and agreed to testify in further proceedings.
