Steve Sadow, lead counsel for former President Donald Trump, said the guilty pleas in the Fulton County racketeering case against the former president and several others could only be “favorable” to his defense.
On Aug. 14, 18 defendants were indicted alongside President Trump for allegedly violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act plus 40 other counts. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis claimed their efforts to challenge the 2020 election results “constituted a criminal organization.”
All three had originally been charged with seven felony counts; Ms. Powell and Mr. Hall under the same charges, while Mr. Chesebro was charged with separate crimes beyond RICO.
None of them pleaded guilty to RICO in the plea deals. Mr. Hall’s case was negotiated down to five misdemeanors, Ms. Powell’s six misdemeanors, and Mr. Chesebro one felony count: count 15 of the indictment, “conspiracy to commit filing false documents.”
All defendants were required to pay fines or restitution, serve probation sentences, and testify in all cases for co-defendants. They accepted the plea deals under the First Offender Act in Georgia, which allows those with no prior felonies to avoid having a criminal record. Though Mr. Chesebro’s guilty plea was for a felony instead of a misdemeanor like his co-defendants, it will be wiped from his record after he serves three years of probation on good behavior. It otherwise could have been grounds for disbarment.
“It appears to me that the guilty plea to count 15 of the Fulton County indictment was the result of pressure by Fani Willis and her team and the prosecution’s looming threat of prison time,“ Mr. Sadow told The Epoch Times. ”However, it is very important for everyone to note that the RICO charge and every other count was dismissed.”
Mr. Sadow had told media outlets on Thursday that Ms. Powell’s testimony could only be favorable in President Trump’s case if she indeed testifies truthfully.
“Once again, I fully expect that truthful testimony would be favorable to my defense strategy,” he added after Mr. Chesebro’s plea.
More Deals?
John Malcolm, who was a federal prosecutor in Atlanta, told The Epoch Times the District Attorney was sure to approach other defendants with plea deals.“I assume their ultimate target is Donald Trump and the more people they get to say ‘I committed a crime and I did it for him,’ the better it is for the prosecution,'” said Mr. Malcom, vice president of the Institute for Constitutional Government for Heritage Foundation.
More defendants pleading out would also allow the prosecutors to try a more manageable case against fewer defendants, he added.
In pretrial motions hearings, prosecutors did indicate that they would be approaching several of the defendants with deals.
Mr. Chesebro had been the one to recommend that the Trump Campaign make use of alternate slates of electors, and Mr. Malcom said now there is additional pressure on the indicted alternate electors to take deals as well.
David Shafer, Cathleen Latham, and Shawn Still were three of the alternate electors indicted; the rest were listed only as unnamed coconspirators in the indictment. All three have been trying to remove their case to federal court, arguing they acted under color of federal officers. A federal judge recently remanded their case back to state court, and they are appealing the decision.
The three would presumably argue they were acting under the direction of Mr. Chesebro, representing President Trump, Mr. Malcolm said. Mr. Chesebro’s guilty plea and testimony could hurt that defense.
“That’s going to pose problems for all the people who followed his advice,” he said.
In addition to the alternate electors, Mr. Chesebro communicated with other attorneys who were indicted, such as Ray Smith and John Eastman.
Ms. Powell’s testimony could be valuable to prosecutors as well; she was present in several meetings with other codefendants, including President Trump, though she was indicted for actions related to investigating election machines in Coffee County.
