6 months ago
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A day before jury selection was set to begin in her Fulton County, Georgia, trial, former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to six counts of misdemeanor “conspiracy to commit interference with performance of election duties.” The result of this will be six years of probation, a $6,000 fine, and an apology letter to the voters of Georgia for Powell’s role in attempting to steal the 2020 election.
That level of punishment seems outrageously lenient considering Powell’s actions in Georgia. In particular, the deal Powell has made with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis doesn’t include pleading guilty to the first charge in the indictment—a state-level racketeering charge that would have made a prison sentence mandatory. However, this is a RICO case involving 18 defendants. One purpose in charging large numbers of co-defendants under RICO is to gain the cooperation of lower-level members of the scheme who are willing to fold early and avoid the RICO charge in exchange for providing insider testimony against other participants in the conspiracy. That appears to be exactly what has happened with Powell.
The Coast Guard hasn’t yet issued a warning, but the many codefendants navigating the choppy seas of the Fulton County case should navigate with care, because the kraken isn’t just floating passively on the surface: It’s turned on them all.
