More Trump Co-Defendants Expected to Take Plea Deals: Prosecutor

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks during a news conference at the Fulton County Government building in Atlanta, Ga., on Aug. 14, 2023. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is prosecuting a racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and 14 others, and expects the total number of defendants to go down before the case goes to trial.

Already, four co-defendants have taken plea bargains, avoiding jail time in exchange for their testimonies against the remaining defendants.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Ms. Willis dismissed the presiding judge’s concern that there were still too many defendants to try together without severing the case.

“It’s whittled down now to a size we can try, but I don’t know that all 15 will be at the table once they get through the process,” she said.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys have been exchanging evidence. Pretrial motions for most of the defendants are due early next month. As they go through this process, some defense lawyers may advise their clients that a negotiated plea is in their best interest, Ms. Willis said.

Mr. Willis said that the defendants face serious charges and years of prison. All have been indicted for violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act with their actions in challenging the 2020 general election results in Georgia, constituting an alleged criminal conspiracy. The indictment lists 161 acts of racketeering and another 40 felonies.

In a separate interview with the local Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), Ms. Willis said it is after the pretrial motions that you get “the most amount of pleas.”

Some of the remaining defendants have publicly said they won’t be taking plea deals, but circumstances can change.

In the interview, Ms. Willis declined to comment on specific defendants and did not answer whether she and special counsel Jack Smith, who is prosecuting a similar case against the 45th president in federal court, have been in contact.

Ms. Willis also reiterated that she was prosecuting the case with no consideration of outside events, including the election cycle. Trump attorney Steve Sadow had argued in court that to make a party nominee sit in a courtroom on trial while his opponent, the incumbent president, continues to campaign would be “the most effective election interference.” State prosecutors have pushed back on allegations of election interference, arguing they are pursuing the case without consideration for politics.

“If the prosecutor finds that they violated the law, they have an ethical duty to bring forth charges and so this is a silly notion to me that because one runs [for] office that your criminal case would stop,” she told the Associated Press.

She also told AJC it was “very possible” she would be arguing the case herself.

4 Plea Bargains

The defendants who have already taken plea bargains are Scott Hall, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis.

Mr. Hall was a bail bondsman in Georgia who was involved in trying to investigate alleged voting fraud in Coffee County. He was the first to accept a guilty plea, with five felonies pleaded down to five misdemeanors.

Ms. Powell, an attorney and former federal prosecutor, was trying to investigate alleged voter fraud after the 2020 general elections, and was charged with many of the same acts of racketeering and criminal counts as Mr. Hall. She had demanded a speedy trial, and Mr. Hall’s guilty plea came as she was preparing for trial, potentially influencing her decision. She pleaded the felonies down to six misdemeanors of election interference.

Mr. Chesebro has been widely publicized as the “architect“ of the Trump campaign’s strategy to use alternate electors in key states to challenge the 2020 general election results. He had also demanded a speedy trial, and was set to go to trial with Ms. Powell together after the two unsuccessfully requested their cases be severed from each other as none of their criminal counts overlapped. The day jury selection was meant to begin, Mr. Chesebro accepted a plea bargain, avoiding trial. He was originally charged with seven felonies, and pleaded guilty to one felony crime of conspiracy to filing false documents only.

Ms. Ellis was a former attorney of President Trump’s, and initially maintained her innocence when the indictment was unsealed. She pleaded guilty to one felony, aiding and abetting false statements and writings. She admitted that she made false statements about the 2020 election, and read a statement of remorse during the plea hearing, claiming she did not know then what she does now and should have done her “due diligence” regarding claims other attorneys made.

All four defendants avoided jail time and a criminal record. Georgia’s First Offender Act allows first time criminal defendants to avoid a conviction on their record.

15 Defendants

President Trump, Defendant 1, and his former attorney Rudy Giuliani, also the former mayor of New York City, both face 13 counts, the most of all the defendants. They have both filed motions to quash several of the counts and to dismiss the case and charges.

Several other attorneys were also indicted for more crimes than most defendants.

Ray Stallings Smith III and Robert Cheeley, both former attorneys for President Trump involved in arranging alternate electors, also filed motions to dismiss his charges. Judge Scott McAfee held a motions hearing recently regarding some of these defenses, and has not yet made a ruling. Mr. Smith was indicted on 12 counts. Mr. Cheeley was indicted on 10 counts.

John Eastman, a former attorney for President Trump, is facing disbarment in California now. He had worked with Mr. Chesebro to arrange for alternate slates of electors, and is one of the few defendants who have spoken to the press about the case. Mr. Eastman has so far maintained his innocence and his attorney says he believes things will play out in his client’s favor if the facts come out. He was indicted on nine counts.

Illinois pastor Stephen Lee has also made public statements claiming innocence and said he would not take a plea bargain. Mr. Lee was indicted on five counts, and named in alleged acts of racketeering that overlap with Harrison Floyd and Trevian Kutti, who were each indicted on three counts. Mr. Floyd and Ms. Kutti have made many social media statements about the case, including some involving witnesses in the case, which resulted in the prosecutor demanding the judge revoke Mr. Floyd’s bond. The judge ultimately did not jail Mr. Floyd, but tightened the language of his release conditions. All three defendants had been involved in trying to talk to election workers to obtain evidence of alleged election fraud.

Only some of the alternate electors were indicted: David Shafer, Shawn Still, and Cathleen Latham. They had previously sought to remove their cases to federal court, but a federal judge remanded their case back to Fulton County. Ms. Latham was indicted on 10 counts, Mr. Shafer on eight counts, and Mr. Still on seven counts.

In addition to crimes related to her being an alternate elector, Ms. Latham was also indicted on crimes related to the attempted Coffee County investigation. Misty Hampton (Hayes) was also indicted on the Coffee County charges, a total of seven counts. These charges overlap with the ones Mr. Hall and Ms. Powell, who have pleaded guilty and will testify, were originally charged with.

Michael Roman, a campaign staffer, was indicted on seven counts.

Two federal officials were also indicted.

Mark Meadows, former chief of staff for President Trump, is in the process of appealing the removal of his case to federal court, where he will seek to have the charges dismissed. Mr. Meadows was indicted on two counts.

Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official, previously also tried to remove his case, which was remanded back to Fulton County. He was also indicted on two counts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.