ATLANTA — Facing accusations of participating in a conspiracy and violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, former attorney for former President Donald Trump Sidney Powell filed a motion in court to sever her trial from her co-defendants.
Powell, who is alleged to have facilitated a conspiracy to steal data from voting machines in Coffee County, and several other charges, has already filed to have a speedy trial in Georgia.
The case, as it proceeds, would pit Powell’s legal counsel against the Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, as she tries to prove Powell’s guilt to a jury and as Powell fights to clear her name.
Shortly after the 2020 presidential election, Powell was a plaintiff in a legal effort to decertify Georgia’s election results, though her attempt was dismissed in federal court.
Powell pled her innocence in a court filing Tuesday, while waiving her first appearance in a Fulton County courtroom.
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The flurry of legal filings by multiple defendants follow Willis’ move to go to trial for all 19 co-defendants as early as October.
Lawyers for Powell wrote in their court filing that the data theft charge portion of the indictment was based on evidence they accuse of being a false premise of “a ‘corrupt’ conspiracy to ‘steal data.’”
Her attorneys instead say that it is a false premise that Powell was executing a contract to get information from the Coffee County voting machines without being authorized to do so.
The evidence for the charges, according to Powell’s attorneys, was therefore a demonstrated false premise, making the prosecution’s charges against their client false.
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The court filing states Powell would only be able to have a fair trial if she is tried on her own, and not as a co-defendant.
Her attorneys continued, saying it would violate Powell’s right to due process should she be tried alongside her current co-defendants due to her lack of involvement with the others, and lack of knowledge about the “vast number of events” outlined in the case.
Among other claims in the motion to sever her case from the others, her attorneys wrote that Powell could be tried alone in a trial lasting at most three days, and would receive an acquittal when the state rests its case.
Additionally, Powell’s counsel said “the prosecution’s case rests on evidence against people with whom Ms. Powell had no agreement, no involvement, and no communications about Coffee County or anything else. Had the prosecution not been determined simply to indict her, it would see this.”
Powell, according to her attorneys, is one of two co-defendants to have requested a speedy trial, the other being Kenneth Chesebro. Like Powell, Chesebro is also an attorney.
Chesebro is “charged in unrelated counts” to Powell’s, according to the court filing by her attorneys.
Both defendants were charged under the Georgia RICO Act, though Powell’s attorneys said the other charges Chesebro faces are different from Powell’s own.
Currently, Powell is accused of the following charges in the indictment by the Fulton County DA’s Office.
- Violation of the Georgia RICO Act
- Conspiracy to commit election fraud (two counts)
- Conspiracy to commit computer theft
- Conspiracy to commit computer trespass
- Conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy
- Conspiracy to defraud the state
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