New Guilty Pleas Unlikely to Bolster Georgia Case Against Trump, Former Prosecutor Says

Former President Donald Trump sits in court during his civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court in New York City on Oct. 25, 2023. Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images

Three of former President Donald Trump’s legal advisers have entered guilty pleas in an ongoing criminal case in Fulton County, Georgia, in the past week, but former prosecutor David Gelman said those plea deals are unlikely to help prosecutors convict the former president.

“I know the mainstream media is really hounding down and say, ‘Oh, the Trump’s inner circle is collapsing.’ I don’t see it,” Mr. Gelman told NTD News’ “Capitol Report” on Oct. 25.

In August, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged President Trump and 18 other people, accusing them of conspiring to unlawfully overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.

Attorney Sydney Powell, who supported efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, pleaded guilty on Oct. 19 to six misdemeanor charges.

The following day, attorney Kenneth Chesebro took a plea deal and accepted one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

Jenna Ellis, another attorney who supported President Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results, also pleaded guilty on Oct. 24 to a single felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings.

Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who was also charged in the Fulton County case, also took a plea deal last month, accepting responsibility for five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties.

As part of their plea deals, Mr. Chesebro, Mr. Hall, Ms. Powell, and Ms. Ellis have all agreed to testify for the prosecution as it proceeds with its case against President Trump and the remaining co-defendants.

Mr. Gelman—who served as the assistant county prosecutor in Burlington County, New Jersey, before starting his own criminal defense practice in 2017, Gelman Law—suggested the prosecutors likely offered these early plea deals to see whether they could get other defendants in the case to flip and isolate President Trump legally.

“When I was a prosecutor, we charged everybody as much as we possibly could, for the simple reason that we know people are going to flip,” he said.

“[The prosecutors] want to make everybody just kind of sweat if you will, and kind of just break, and, you know, flip if you want on the main individual. In this situation, it’s the former president.”

Steve Sadow, an attorney representing President Trump in the Fulton County case, has also minimized the risk that his client could face if prosecutors call Ms. Powell or Mr. Chesebro to the stand.

Mr. Sadow said that if the prosecution calls Ms. Powell to testify, her truthful testimony would only bolster President Trump’s defense arguments.

“I fully expect that truthful testimony would be favorable to my defense strategy,” Mr. Sadow said again following Mr. Chesebro’s guilty plea.

Sidney Powell speaks during a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington on Nov. 19, 2020. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

More Plea Deals ‘Likely’

Mr. Gelman said defendants often enter plea agreements because they can’t keep up with their legal costs and that many of the remaining defendants in this case would likely do the same.

He said it'll be difficult to know how President Trump’s legal team will respond until they know how these other defendants may testify.

“What are they going to offer? That is the whole question on this. And if I’m the defense attorneys for Donald Trump, remember, they’re going to have the opportunity to cross-examine all these individuals who have cut plea deals and who are allegedly going to testify against him,” Mr. Gelman said.

The prosecutor-turned-defense attorney argued that any co-defendants who do take plea deals won’t be able to prove President Trump intended to commit a crime.

“They’re not going to show the intent of Donald Trump,” Mr. Gelman told NTD News. “So unless they’re going to actually say that Donald Trump ‘ordered me to do X, Y, and Z,’ I don’t think they’re going to have really much to go on.”

Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who worked in connection with former U.S. President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, speaks to his attorney, Scott Grubman, as he appears before Judge Scott McAfee in a hearing related to the 2020 election interference case on Oct. 10, 2023, in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta. Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images

The Aug. 14 indictment alleges that Mr. Chesebro recommended the Trump campaign’s strategy of nominating alternate slates of electors in the various states whose 2020 election results the Trump campaign had challenged. Mr. Chesebro also allegedly communicated with other attorneys who were indicted in the Fulton County case, including Ray Smith and John Eastman.

The indictment alleges that Ms. Powell and Ms. Ellis made false statements concerning election fraud in Georgia at a Nov. 19 press conference on behalf of the Trump campaign.

Ms. Powell also allegedly met with President Trump on Dec. 18, 2020, to discuss strategies for challenging the 2020 election results, including seizing vote tabulation machines and granting her special counsel authority to investigate allegations of voter fraud in Georgia. Prosecutors also alleged that Ms. Powell had committed a variety of unlawful behavior while inspecting election equipment in Coffee County, Georgia.

The Georgia indictment also alleged that Ms. Ellis participated in efforts to convince Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania legislators to allow for the appointment of alternate slates of electors and wrote two separate memos describing means of delaying the certification of the 2020 election results.

The indictment alleges that Mr. Hall engaged in a variety of unlawful acts in his handling of Coffee County election equipment.

From NTD News.