A former lawyer for Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to aiding the former US president’s efforts to overturn his election defeat in the state of Georgia, agreeing to testify against him if called.
The lawyer, Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty to six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties, a misdemeanour charge.
Powell was fined $6,000, ordered to pay restitution of $2,700 and to write a letter of apology to the citizens of Georgia.
She agreed to testify against Trump and the other 16 co-defendants in the case if prosecutors ask her to.
The Georgia case is one of four concurrent criminal cases that Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is facing, and one of two specifically focused on his attempts to overturn his election defeat.
Trump continues to falsely claim his loss was the result of fraud.
Powell’s plea came just days before she was set to go to trial beginning on Monday on charges including racketeering and conspiracy to commit election fraud.
A lawyer for Powell did not immediately return a request for comment.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to a sweeping Fulton County, Georgia, indictment charging him with violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations, or RICO, act in his efforts to overturn his loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Powell admitted to plotting to unlawfully access secure election machines in rural Coffee County in southeastern Georgia in January 2021. The plea agreement calls for her to be sentenced to six years of probation.
Powell’s guilty plea is a significant victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose team has now gained the co-operation of a lawyer closely tied to Trump’s efforts to reverse his election defeat.
Powell represented Trump following the 2020 presidential election and helped spread his false claims that the election had been marred by widespread voter fraud.
She famously threatened to “release the kraken”, a mythological sea monster.
Prosecutors said Powell and other co-defendants tampered with electronic ballot markers and accessed data belonging to Dominion Voting Systems, the voting machine company that Powell and other Trump allies falsely claimed helped rig the election against Trump.
Scott Hall, a bail bondsman, pleaded guilty last month to five counts of conspiracy to interfere with the performance of election duties.