Trump co-defendant takes plea deal in Georgia case

The sprawling racketeering case brought last month by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accused Hall, Trump, and 17 others of participating in a broad conspiracy to overturn the election results in the Peach State.

By Zachary Cohen, Jason Morris and Nick Valencia | CNN

One of former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants has pleaded guilty to five counts in the 2020 election subversion case in Georgia.

Bail bondsman Scott Hall, 59, is the first defendant in the case brought by the Fulton County district attorney’s office to take a plea agreement with prosecutors.

The agreement, entered in Fulton County Superior Court on Friday afternoon, recommends a sentence of five years probation.

Hall was accused of conspiring to unlawfully access voter data and ballot counting machines at the Coffee County election office on January 7, 2021.

He spent hours inside a restricted area of the election office when voting systems were breached, which was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud. Hall was captured on surveillance video at the office on the day of the breach. He testified before the special grand jury in the Fulton County case and acknowledged that he gained access to a voting machine.

The sprawling racketeering case brought last month by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accused Hall, Trump, and 17 others of participating in a broad conspiracy to overturn the election results in the Peach State.

Trump and the remaining 17 defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors in Willis’ office signaled earlier Friday that they may soon extend a plea deal to one or both of the two defendants headed to trial.

The revelation came during a procedural hearing for former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of the fake elector scheme. They are the first defendants in the case set to go on trial on October 23.