Trump attorney Sidney Powell pleads guilty in Georgia election subversion case

Former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell has pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case, one day before her trial was set to start.

As part of her guilty plea, Powell is admitting her role in the January 2021 breach of election systems in rural Coffee County, Georgia. With the help of local GOP officials, a group of Trump supporters accessed and copied information from the county's election systems in hopes of somehow proving that the election was rigged against Trump.

She pleaded guilty Thursday to six misdemeanors - six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties - a significant reduction from the seven felonies she initially faced.

Fulton County prosecutors are recommending a sentence of six years probation. Powell will also be required to testify at future trials, write an apology letter to the citizens of Georgia, pay nearly $9,000 in restitution and fines and turn over documents.

Trump, a co-defendant in the Fulton County case, does not appear in Powell's plea documents and was not mentioned at the brief plea hearing Thursday.

After the 2020 election, Powell had peddled conspiracy theories about purported fraud and false claims about millions of votes being flipped in a global scheme against Trump that involved Venezuela and other foreign powers.

She is now the second person in the sprawling racketeering case to plead guilty. Bail bondsman Scott Hall last month pleaded guilty and agreed to testify at future trials. The other 17 defendants, including Trump, have pleaded not guilty.