Neither agreement — Powell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, Chesebro to a felony — called for prison time. That’s a generous resolution for two defendants alleged to have played significant roles in what Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has called a “criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election result.” But such an outcome could nonetheless signal to other defendants the benefits that await them if they, too, plead guilty while also helping prosecutors winnow down an unwieldy racketeering case so they can focus their attention on even bigger names.
“In terms of immediate things that might shake out of it, I think it’s a question of what the people next down in the pecking order might do in order to free up the DA’s office a little bit more,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a Georgia State University law professor. “I think that’s really what the DA’s office is trying to do now. They’re trying to shake as many of these codefendants loose as they can and focus on the people they want to focus on and just step on the accelerator and get things moving.”
[It worked with Jenna Ellis, who had worked for Trump longer than Powell did. Prosecutors don’t offer easy deals like this without either (a) giving up on the case, or (b) getting testimony against the main targets of their prosecution. This is classic RICO prosecution doctrine, and the easy exit for Powell suggests (b) a lot more than it does (a). Ellis’ immediate flip afterward adds to the (b) impression, especially since she pled guilty to a felony charge. It’s still possible that Willis is looking for a face-saving exit, but if that were the case, then we’d probably see a broad offer for plea deals on misdemeanors. — Ed]
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