Left: Sidney Powell appears in a booking photo. (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office) Right: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks in the Fulton County Government Center during a news conference on Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A Georgia judge on Tuesday set a motions hearing for so-called “Kraken” lawyer Sidney Powell after she accused the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office of “abuse of its prosecutorial powers and misconduct” in a multi-pronged attack filed late last week.
In the 21-page motion, Powell’s attorney, Brian Rafferty, argues that newly-disclosed evidence “calls into question the validity of the State’s investigation writ large, its presentation to the grand jury of false and misleading ‘evidence,’ and violations of its ethical responsibilities in pursuing this prosecution—particularly as to Ms. Powell.”
Powell and “coup memo” co-author Kenneth Chesebro are currently slated to go on trial beginning Oct. 23. They both face racketeering (RICO) and other charges in Fulton County over their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The two attorneys previously exercised their speedy trial right and will be tried separately from the other high-profile, pro-Donald Trump defendants.
“Prosecutors may not give evidence they know is false or present argument that they know not to be true,” Powell’s motion reads. “The information [Fani] Willis, [Nathan] Wade, and their team presented to the grand jury against Ms. Powell to obtain this Indictment was necessarily misleading at best and flat out false at worst.”
Powell faces seven counts related to her alleged dealings with SullivanStrickler LLC, her alleged role in a conspiracy to commit election fraud by tampering with voting machines in Coffee County, and for allegedly violating Georgia’s homegrown version of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
She has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
The heart of the defendant’s Sept. 27 motion argues that prosecutors “failed to conduct an independent investigation of the Coffee County events” and “ignored all evidence showing Ms. Powell was not involved in the events surrounding Coffee County.”
In Coffee County, before and after the 2020 vote, officials there “expressed concerns to the state about the election equipment” and claimed they “had multiple problems with Dominion Voting Systems equipment in its election and wrote multiple letters to the Secretary of State seeking assistance,” the motion says.
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The motion argues Powell “was not involved” in any of the discussions — either by email, text messages, or phone calls – or efforts to inspect the Coffee County voting machines.
Instead, Rafferty argues, the Trump campaign — which had previously disavowed Powell in public — led the effort in Coffee County and even sought to keep her unaware of developments there.
“A cursory review of any of the sworn testimony of the key people involved in Coffee County would show investigators that the people involved in Coffee County never spoke with Ms. Powell and that Ms. Powell had nothing to do with the events in Coffee County,” the prosecutorial misconduct motion reads. “Interviews with any of these key individuals would also reveal Ms. Powell had nothing to do with Coffee County, and she should not be charged in this case. But it appears the State did none of these things.”
Rafferty argues the state failed “to operate in good faith at any level.” Powell’s attorney calls this “the kindest explanation” for why his client was ultimately indicted along with 18 others this summer.
“This not only requires immediate dismissal of the false charges against Ms. Powell, but it also makes it extremely difficult to believe the indicting grand jury heard any first-hand or truthful evidence about her before rubber-stamping the Indictment,” the motion continues. “This alone raises even more questions about likely abuses of the grand jury. All Counts of the Indictment and ‘acts’ alleged against Ms. Powell must be dismissed. Ms. Powell committed no crime, and there was no crime regarding Coffee County.”
In early September, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that discovery in the case must be completed by all parties by Sept. 20. He also ruled that all motions in the case, other than motions in limine, must be filed no later than Sept. 27. Raffety filed the motion to dismiss based on prosecutorial misconduct, along with 190 pages of exhibits, on the final day outlined in the prior court order.
On Tuesday, McAfee set a hearing to discuss two of Powell’s motions on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. The conservative attorney is also seeking to force the state to produce additional evidence she believes is in the possession of prosecutors “that exonerates her of all charges.”
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