One by one, Donald Trump’s co-defendants in his Georgia criminal case are taking plea deals and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors. On Tuesday, lawyer Jenna Ellis became the fourth of 18 total co-defendants to plead guilty to reduced charges—in her case, a count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings. She’s the third lawyer involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia to make a deal with prosecutors, with each of them potentially filling in pieces of the overall plot and implicating still other co-defendants or even Trump himself.
So far, each defendant to plead has gotten off relatively lightly, with no prison time. Other co-defendants must be looking at that, wondering whether they should follow suit, and thinking about what they can offer prosecutors and whether the value of that testimony will decrease over time as more people plead. With Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro all making deals over the past week, it feels like the floodgates have opened.
The first defendant to plead guilty, bail bondsman Scott Graham Hall, didn’t give Trump much to be worried about. He was a low-level participant who had not been in a position to testify about the coup plot as a whole or what Trump was saying in private.
Powell’s plea deal had to make Trump a little more nervous. While she may not be the most credible witness, there’s no question that she had extensive direct dealings with Trump. Powell was in the Oval Office with Trump at the notorious December 2020 meeting that devolved into a screaming match, a meeting at which Trump talked about making her a special counsel. That wasn’t Powell’s only time in the Oval Office with Trump. She’s in a position to talk about what he was saying and being told about the election results. She also worked closely with Rudy Giuliani, who faces 13 charges in Georgia.
Chesebro’s plea deal, which happened the day after Powell’s, offers prosecutors a different set of advantages: He is an architect of the fake electors scheme and worked closely with other key co-defendants on that. Ellis, likewise, worked on the fake electors scheme, traveling the country with Giuliani to get state legislators on board with the plan. She was also allegedly part of a White House meeting with Trump and Pennsylvania legislators as Trump pushed for fake electors to be elevated.
Between Chesebro, Powell, and Ellis, Georgia prosecutors should have powerful testimony about virtually every major co-defendant in the case. The big question now is: Who will make a deal next?
There’s speculation that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was cooperating with federal special counsel Jack Smith. Meadows faces two charges in Georgia: racketeering and solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. Those are the same two charges Ellis faced before her plea deal, incidentally. Even if he’s not formally cooperating with Smith’s investigation, Meadows appears to be trying pretty hard to stay out of prison. You have to wonder what he’s thinking as he looks at Ellis’ deal.
Giuliani and John Eastman, another of Trump’s lawyers, were allegedly deeply involved in the same legal maneuverings that Powell, Chesebro, and Ellis were charged for and ultimately took plea deals on. Giuliani and Eastman have an enormous amount to worry about—though Giuliani, in particular, may be a big enough target that he wouldn’t get the same kind of sweet deal his co-defendants have gotten over the past week.
Mike Roman, a Trump campaign official who faces seven charges, must know that Chesebro at least has information about Roman’s involvement in the efforts to overturn the election, as does Robert Cheeley, a Trump-allied lawyer who faces 10 charges.
Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark should have started getting nervous when Hall pleaded; the indictment specifically references a phone call between Hall and Clark. But getting Clark to take a plea deal could be particularly valuable for prosecutors since he was in direct and repeated contact with Trump.
Maybe in the end Powell, Chesebro, and Ellis will be the only plea-deal-takers with substantial direct ties to the most prominent co-defendants. Loyalty to Donald Trump is a helluva drug, and maybe it will continue to rule the likes of Giuliani, Meadows, Eastman, Clark, and Roman. But the past week has given every other defendant in that case a lot to think about: what testimony against them prosecutors now have, how generous of a deal they might be able to get, and how much more company they’ll have as Trump and his fans vent their ire. Trump should be very nervous.
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