Kenneth Chesebro, Donald Trump’s former lawyer during the 2020 presidential campaign, pleaded guilty on Friday in the case of trying to overturn the election results in Georgia, admitting to conspiring with the then US president to achieve that goal. Chesebro is the third defendant in the Georgia case to plead guilty and the second member of Trump’s legal team to do so, a day after attorney Sidney Powell pleaded guilty.
The lawyer pleaded guilty at a hearing held today in the Fulton County District Court, which is responsible for this case that includes 19 defendants, including the former president, and agreed to testify in any trial in this regard.
During the hearing, he admitted to committing the crimes he was accused of, including “conspiring” with Trump and other allies to try to reverse the outcome of the presidential election in Georgia and achieve victory in that state for the Republican Party.
The guilty plea follows an agreement between prosecutors and Chesebro’s defence, who agreed to sentence him to five years’ probation, pay a fine of five thousand dollars (4,700 euros) and perform 100 hours of community service. The lawyer also confirmed that he had already fulfilled another of the convention’s requirements: writing a letter to the citizens of Georgia asking for forgiveness for his actions.
Chesebro’s testimony – which the agreement now prohibits him from communicating with the rest of the defendants – could be key in Trump’s trial in this case, which is one of four criminal charges facing the former president, who continues his election campaign despite all the legal problems. Campaigning to try to return to the White House in 2024. Trump remains the favorite in the Republican primary to win the party’s nomination for the White House.
Lawyer Sidney Powell – who became the second defendant in this case to reach a plea deal with prosecutors – was charged along with Trump and 17 others with violating the state’s anti-racketeering law, after they filed an appeal the day before the start of the trial. Your trial. Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to intentionally interfere with the performance of his election duties.
As part of the agreement, the 68-year-old lawyer will serve a six-year probation period, will be fined around six thousand euros and will have to write a letter of apology to the state of Georgia and its residents, after also agreeing to testify. against other defendants in future trials.
Accepting the plea deal was a turnaround for a lawyer who has aggressively promoted, perhaps more than anyone else, baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election results.
If prosecutors compel her to testify, Powell could provide information about a news conference she attended on Trump’s behalf shortly after the election and about a White House meeting she attended in mid-December of that year, during the election. The impact on election results was discussed.
A month ago, defendant Scott Graham Hall also pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Prosecutors allege that Powell conspired with Hall to access voting equipment without authorization and hired a computer company to send a team to Coffee County in south Georgia to copy software and data from voting machines.
No trial dates have been set for the remaining 16 defendants, including former New York House Speaker Rudy Giuliani, who was Trump’s lawyer, and Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s White House chief of staff.
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