The apology letters that Trump-aligned lawyers Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro were required to pen as part of their plea deals in the sprawling Georgia election interference case are only one sentence long. The letters, which were obtained by The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, were hand-written and curt, and neither acknowledged the legitimacy of Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory in the state or denounced the unfounded claims of election fraud the attorneys pushed.
"I apologize for my actions in connection with the events in Coffee County,” Powell wrote in an Oct. 19 letter, dated the same day she pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors related to efforts to interfere with the performance of election duties. “I apologize to the citizens of the state of Georgia and of Fulton County for my involvement in Count 15 of the indictment,” Chesebro wrote in a letter dated Oct. 20, which is when he pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents. Powell and Chesebro are among four defendants in the sprawling racketeering case to reach plea deals with Georgia prosecutors. The letters written by the other two defendants who pleaded guilty — Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis and Scott Hall, a bail bondsman — were longer and more detailed.
"These letters from Chesebro and Powell are…underwhelming," MSNBC's Katie Phang wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "To be filed under 'THAT'S AN UNDERSTATEMENT,' former Mueller prosecutor Andrew Weissmann added. "No jail time, eventual expungement of criminal record, and court sign-off on crimes not being of moral turpitude (so can continue to practice law)—all the consequences for engaging in attempted overthrow of US presidential election."
Two of the apology letters in the Fulton Trump case - from Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell and obtained by the AJC - were handwritten and just one line long.https://t.co/sboiqy1xCs pic.twitter.com/vy4Ojl4Pio
— Tamar Hallerman (@TamarHallerman) December 14, 2023