Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro's one-sentence letters of apology in the Georgia election case
ATLANTA (AP) — Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, two attorneys close to Donald Trump, were forced to write one-sentence apology letters in exchange for a plea deal in the Georgia election meddling case.
The handwritten and brief letters were acquired by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday, according to an open records request. In neither letter is it stated that Democrat Joe Biden's victory in Georgia's 2020 election is legitimate or that they should be condemned for pushing irrational conspiracy theories alleging that Trump was duped into winning the election.
In a letter dated October 19, Powell expressed her regret for her activities about the events in Coffee County. On the same day, she entered a guilty plea to six misdemeanors, which included conspiring to obstruct elections on purpose. Chesebro appeared in court on October 20 to enter a guilty plea to a single felony charge of conspiracy to conduct submitting false documents. In a letter dated that same day, he apologized to the people of Fulton County and the state of Georgia for his involvement in Count 15 of the indictment.
Fani Willis, the district attorney for Fulton County who filed the lawsuit alleging election meddling, did not respond to a message left on Thursday regarding the letters' contents.
Powell and Chesebro were two of the four defendants in the case who entered guilty pleas following negotiations with the prosecution. They were accused of taking part in an extensive plot to unlawfully maintain the Republican Party's hold on power when they were indicted in August along with Trump and other individuals. The remaining fifteen defendants have all entered not guilty pleas, including Trump, attorney Rudy Giuliani, and former chief of staff of the White House Mark Meadows.
All four of the individuals who made a plea agreement with the prosecution were given sentences that included probation rather than jail time. In accordance with Georgia's first offender statute, they were also permitted to enter a guilty plea. This means that their records will be cleared if they successfully finish their probation without breaking any rules or committing any new crimes.
The other two defendants who entered guilty pleas were bail bondsman Scott Hall and Trump attorney Jenna Ellis. Scott Hall's letter was longer and had more details. On October 24, Ellis sadly presented her letter to the judge in open court, expressing her "deep remorse" for her role in contesting the election results.
"Your Honor, what I should have done, but did not do, was to verify that the information the other attorneys claimed to be true was true," she stated. "I did not do my due diligence in the hectic pace of trying to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia."
In his five-paragraph statement to the people of Georgia, Hall, who entered a guilty plea on September 29, stated, "I owe you an apology."
"I regret that I got involved in the post-election activities that put me in court," he stated, adding that he did so because he noticed what he believed to be some irregularities.
Powell was first accused of six more felonies in addition to criminal racketeering.
The prosecution claims she planned with Hall and other individuals to get unauthorized access to election equipment, and she hired computer forensics company Sullivan Strickler to dispatch a team to south Georgia's Coffee County to transfer data and software from computers and voting machines there. According to the indictment, an anonymous individual emailed a senior Sullivan Strickler official, directing him to forward all data that was duplicated from Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Coffee County to an unnamed attorney connected to Powell and the Trump campaign.
Chesebro was first accused of six more felonies in addition to criminal racketeering.
The prosecution claims he illegally colluded with Trump's campaign attorneys to get the group of Georgia Republicans to sign the fictitious elector certificate and turn it in to different federal agencies. Prosecutors claimed that he also spoke with Republican leaders and Trump's campaign attorneys in other swing states that Biden won in order to get those states to submit fictitious elector slates as well.
Ellis entered a guilty plea to one count of felony aiding and abetting the fabrication of writings and statements. She was accused of encouraging a public official to break their oath of office and breaking the state's anti-racketeering legislation, both felonies.
A multitude of charges are included in the indictment in the extensive case against Ellis, among them the allegation that she co-wrote strategies to obstruct and postpone congressional certification of the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021, the day a crowd of Trump loyalists ultimately took control of the U.S. Capitol. She is also suspected of pressuring state lawmakers to support fraudulent electors who support Trump in a number of states.
Hall admitted his role in gaining access to Coffee County election equipment and entered a guilty plea to five misdemeanor counts.
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