Judge Denies Sidney Powell's Motion To Dismiss Charges In Georgia Election Case
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A Georgia judge on Thursday rejected lawyer Sidney Powell's attempt to dismiss her charges in a racketeering case that also ensnared former President Donald Trump and multiple others.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee denied her motion to dismiss the charges, coming after she alleged that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis engaged in prosecutorial misconduct in her case.
"I don't see that as clearing just a procedural bar of being something that's under the court's authority," the judge said as he denied Ms. Powell's motion, the Washington Examiner reported. He added that it is the “jury’s job to decide contested issues” regarding her case.
Ms. Powell is scheduled to go on trial later this month along with election lawyer Kenneth Chesebro. Several weeks ago, the two tried to sever their cases from each another, which Judge McAfee also denied, while the other 17 defendants—including President Trump—will go on trial at a later undetermined date.
Both Ms. Powell and Mr. Chesebro have pleaded not guilty.
“I can sympathize with the idea that someone who vigorously contests and believes in their innocence doesn’t want to sit through a long trial, but that is the state’s right to do,” Judge McAfee said in his remarks. “That’s simply the process as it stands.”
Election Claims
In August, Ms. Powell, a former federal prosecutor who drew headlines in 2020 for her "Kraken"-related claims about the 2020 election, was charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, and more after prosecutors alleged that she was involved in an unlawful breach of voting equipment in Coffee County, Georgia.
Her motion to dismiss accused Ms. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, of misconduct because her "indictment represents troubling and unethical conduct by the prosecutors."
Ms. Powell's lawyers also said Ms. Willis and her team of prosecutors likely violated Napue, referring to a 1959 Supreme Court decision about the knowing use of false testimony by a prosecutor, and therefore violated the due process clause of the Constitution's 14th Amendment.
The prosecutors "must have presented a misleading and false case to the grand jury, or the grand jury simply rubber-stamped the Indictment," her filing in late September stated. "The State was in possession of substantial exculpatory evidence which it must not have presented, and this Court should carefully review the grand jury proceedings for Napue and ethical violations by the prosecution."
But the Fulton District Attorney's Office vigorously opposed Ms. Powell's motion to dismiss, saying Thursday that her claims about her innocence should be up to the jury.
While reports have said that Ms. Powell was an attorney for President Trump after the 2020 election, she wrote in a filing that she didn't serve on the former president's legal team at the time. There was some confusion after she appeared alongside then-Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis in a news conference about election irregularities.
After Judge McAfee's ruling, Ms. Powell has not made any public comments.
Powell's Co-Defendants
The ruling comes weeks after Ms. Willis' team confirmed that attorney Lin Wood, who also made a number of claims around the 2020 election, would serve as a "state witness" in Ms. Powell's trial. In a comment to The Epoch Times, Mr. Wood said last month that he did not flip on President Trump or others, saying: “I have no idea why I am being called as a witness in the [Sidney] Powell trial."
In the Georgia case so far, all the defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges except for one. Last week, bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded guilty to multiple charges as part of a plea agreement that requires him to testify against the other co-defendants.
His case relates to the incident in Coffee County, according to prosecutors. It's not clear if Mr. Hall will be called to testify against Ms. Powell or the others.
As for President Trump, he also faces state charges in New York City after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him for allegedly falsifying business records in connection to the 2016 election. Federal prosecutors earlier this summer charged President Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House and for his actions following the 2020 election.
Attorneys for President Trump last week made a court filing saying he won't seek to move the Georgia case to a federal court, coming after he previously wrote in a court filing that he might do so.
“This decision is based on his well-founded confidence that this Honorable Court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial and guarantee him due process of law throughout the prosecution of his case in the Superior Court of
Fulton County, Georgia,” Trump attorney Steven Sadow wrote.
