How bad for Trump is Sidney Powell's plea deal in Georgia?

Sidney Powell flips in Georgia election interference case

(Image credit: Fulton County Sheriff's Office via Getty Images)

published 20 October 2023

"The Kraken has been released — on probation," David Graham wrote at The Atlantic. Sidney Powell, the lawyer who memorably promised to "release the Kraken" as part of her conspiracy-fueled efforts to overturn former President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election, unexpectedly pleaded guilty to six reduced election interference charges in Fulton County, Georgia, on Thursday. In return for handing over documents and testifying against her co-defendants in the sprawling racketeering case brought by District Attorney Fani Willis, Powell will serve six years of probation, pay $8,700 in fines and restitution, and apologize to the citizens of Georgia.

"To put it more colloquially, Powell flipped," Jeremey Stahl explained at Slate. "This is awful news for Donald Trump." Powell is the first person in Trump's post-election inner circle to take a plea deal, and "she could shed light on a number of gambits he undertook to stay in power despite the will of the voters," The New York Times reported. Notably, she was in a wild Dec. 18, 2020, Oval Office meeting in which Trump floated a series of extreme measures to stay in power.

Powell can "testify to what Trump said at that meeting," former federal prosecutor Amy Lee Copeland told The Daily Beast. "And we don't have a whole lot of people who’ve been willing to do that."

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Trump lawyer Steve Sadow suggested Powell's "truthful testimony" would "be favorable to my overall defense strategy."

"The only downside for prosecutors in calling Powell is her credibility, given the wildness of the conspiracy theories she has espoused," Stahl noted. Several legal experts said her sweetheart deal spoke volumes. "You don't give a no-jail plea deal unless that person's got something very good to say that will help your case against the others," said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).

“It's a great deal" for Powell, Georgia State law professor Anthony Michael Kreis told The Atlantic. And "I think there are a lot of people who are in more trouble than they were before." That includes Trump but also Rudy Giuliani, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and attorney John Eastman. Unless they also flip, Graham noted. "Powell's conviction could be the first domino in a dramatic cascade, or simply an early piece taken off the board in a long, grueling chess match."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.