Trump Co-Defendant Pleads Guilty in Georgia Case

Facts

• Atlanta-based bail bondsman Scott Hall, one of former Pres. Donald Trump's 18 co-defendants in the Georgia 2020 election interference case, pleaded guilty on Friday to misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties.¹
• As part of the plea deal, which requires him to testify against other defendants and write a letter of apology to Georgia voters, Hall accepted five years' probation, 200 hours of community service, a $5K fine, and a prohibition on election administration-related activities.²
• Hall, the first defendant to turn himself in to authorities in August, had been charged with racketeering and six felony counts of conspiracy for allegedly helping breach voting machines inside the Coffee County Board of Elections Registration office in January 2021.³
• Though Hall is far from being one of the high-profile people indicted in the case against an alleged wide-ranging scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, his plea deal marks a win for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.⁴
• Earlier, prosecutors had signaled that they may soon offer a plea deal to former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro — accused of being the mastermind of the alleged fake elector scheme — as their case heads to trial on Oct. 23.⁵
• Meanwhile, a federal judge has dismissed requests from Trump co-defendants Cathy Latham, David Shafer, and state Senator Shawn Still to move their prosecutions in the Fulton County election interference case to federal court.⁶

Sources: ¹FOX News, ²BBC News, ³National Review, ⁴New York Post, ⁵CNN and ⁶New York Times.

Narratives

• Democratic narrative, as provided by MSNBC. Scott Hall has become the first Trump co-defendant in the Fulton County election interference case to flip, paving the way for potential new information to be used against others as he has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. This move may be a bad sign for Sidney Powell, who was allegedly with Hall in the Coffee County scheme. The dominoes have just begun to fall.
• Pro-Trump narrative, as provided by The gateway pundit. It has become crystal clear that the justice system doesn't even care about trying to hide that the Trump Georgia election case is part of a lawfare campaign against the former president. It's a bit too convenient to be a coincidence that the first defendant to plead guilty is someone who was absurdly indicted for being in a room when a voting machine was legally examined.

Predictions