According to a report from NBC News, it has been reported that one of the 18 co-defendants of former President Donald Trump in the RICO case led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has reached a plea agreement and intends to provide testimony in favor of the prosecution.
Scott Hall, a 59-year-old individual, has entered a plea of guilty to five misdemeanor offenses. As per the terms of the agreement, he will be subject to a five-year probationary period, contingent upon his compliance with the specified conditions. Hall entered a guilty plea on five charges of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the proper execution of an election.
“Do you understand that conditions of your probation in this sentence is that you testify truthfully at any further court proceedings to include trials of any co-defendants that is listed on the original indictment in which you were charged,” the district attorney’s office asked Hall in a hearing Friday before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.
“Yes ma’am,” he replied.
Clearly, prosecutors on this case knew Hall would ‘flip’ on Trump to save himself, which is why he was approached first with an offer he couldn’t resist. He immediately folded like a cheap suit, just as they needed him to, to pave the way to a sure conviction of the former president of the United States.
Hall, a bail bondsman, was accused of being involved in a “breach” of the voting system in Coffee County, Georgia, where many Trump aides and representatives examined polling devices. Rejecting Willis’ account of the encounter, the lawyers for former Trump attorney Sidney Powell have said that they were invited to see the machines.
A number of misdemeanor and felony charges, including two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to steal computers, conspiracy to trespass computers, conspiracy to invade privacy of computers, and conspiracy to defraud the state, were included in the indictment against Hall.
As per the agreement with the prosecution, Hall is the first of the nineteen co-defendants to submit a guilty plea. The recommended penalty, which would spare him from jail time, is five years probation, a $5,000 fine, 200 hours of community service, and writing an apology letter. Out of the seven counts against him, five were misdemeanors, and he entered a plea to them.
As an integral component of the plea agreement, Hall made an appearance in court on Friday afternoon and acknowledged the existence of a factual foundation supporting the charges leveled against him for the aforementioned five counts. The aforementioned admissions can now be employed as evidence against the remaining co-defendants, so facilitating the prosecution’s task of substantiating their argument.
Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University and former special counsel for the Department of Defense, recently shared a series of tweets on The Platform. The guilty plea entered by Hall is perceived as unfavorable for the other defendants, particularly attorney Sidney Powell, as it carries significant implications.
According to Goodman, Powell and other individuals face a significant risk due to the numerous “alleged joint actions” outlined in the indictment. These actions include conspiring together to deliberately and unlawfully manipulate electronic ballot markers and tabulating machines, possessing official ballots outside of the designated polling place, utilizing a computer without proper authorization and with the intent to remove voter data and Dominion Voting Systems data from said computer, among other charges.
With breakthrough for Georgia DA (@TamarHallerman reporting: “SCOTT HALL has become the first co-defendant in the Fulton election interference case to take a plea deal with prosecutors.”)
That spells bad news for, among others, Sidney Powell.
Example of alleged joint actions. pic.twitter.com/odMM5C7JtX
— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) September 29, 2023
According to Elie Honig, a senior legal analyst at CNN, Hall’s plea has been perceived as posing a significant risk for Powell. During an interview on The Lead with Jake Tapper, Honig expressed that the guilty plea is a significant victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Honig also acknowledged the challenges associated with charging a group of 19 defendants simultaneously, highlighting the potential for defendants to cooperate and provide incriminating information against one another.
Honig’s research inquiry revolved around the examination of Hall’s agreement to testify and its potential implications for Powell.
“The person who needs to be most worried about this is Sidney Powell because Scott is charged in the scheme to access voting equipment,” said Honig. “And Sidney Powell is also charged in that count. So if he is providing testimony, then she is going to be implicated.”
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