By Abigail Gilder
Staff Writer
On Oct. 19, a momentous event occurred that could potentially destroy the chances of reelection for former President Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election. According to AP News, Sidney Powell, Donald Trump’s former attorney and colleague throughout his re-election campaign, pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy in the 2020 election.
Powell pleaded guilty to reduced charges in a deal with the prosecution. She admitted to breaching the election system by tampering with election results in the state of Georgia and copying data off of voting machines to see which voters voted for each candidate, as reported by CNN. Powell also admitted to hiring a forensics firm to unlawfully access government computers. In doing so, she intended to examine personal voter data with the full knowledge that this practice is illegal.
As a result of her guilty plea on reduced charges, Powell is now required to pay a $6,000 fine for the misdemeanor charges, a $2,700 restitution fee for the state of Georgia, six years of probation and an apology letter to the state of Georgia, as reported by FOX News. She is the second person to plead guilty in a case examining the unlawful actions of Trump and 17 others, including former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani. All parties involved, including Powell, are convicted of violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, as Politico reports.
The implications of Powell’s guilty plea, as suggested by Tom Church, a criminal defense attorney in Atlanta, could be devastating for former President Trump’s defense. This is largely due to the agreement of reduced charges agreed upon by Powell. In her agreement, she recorded a statement for the prosecution, asserting that she will willingly and truthfully testify against her co-defendants at future trials.
While this is great news for the Democratic Party, it could be highly detrimental to the Republicans. As FOX News claims, not only does this agreement have the ability to make the party look dishonest as a whole, but in a discussion of Trump’s indictment and ongoing case, Church claims, “one of his top advisors, one his top lawyers in the effort to overturn the election results… she’s going to be a big-time witness for the state if Mr. Trump goes to trial.”
Despite the negative implications for the Republican Party, the Democratic Party will highly benefit from this advancement in the Trump case, should the party choose to use it to its advantage. For example, if the Democratic Party chooses to focus and capitalize on this detrimental event, there is a higher likelihood that the Democratic Party will win the popular vote in the upcoming presidential election.
Powell’s trial date has been set, with more information to be announced in the coming weeks.
