Sidney Powell and Trevian Kutti pleaded not guilty in RICO indictment in connection with alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 election results
Sidney Powell, a former Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist, entered a not guilty plea on Tuesday, according to court filings, per CNN.
Powell’s lawyer stated she would waive her arraignment in the case in Fulton Count, writing to a judge that she “enters a plea of NOT GUILTY to each and every charge in the Indictment.”
Earlier this month, Powell was charged along with Trump and 17 of his allies Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in a sprawling RICO indictment resulting from a lengthy investigation into efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Powell played a key role in the alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Prosecutors accused Powell of helping the former president spread false conspiracy theories of election fraud, including that Dominion Voting Systems’ machines were rigged. Powell has been identified by numerous news outlets as one of the six unnamed, alleged Trump co-conspirators listed in the indictment. In the special counsel indictment, Smith described her — though did not name her — as “an attorney whose unfounded claims of election fraud [Trump] privately acknowledged to others sounded ‘crazy.’ ”
Powell is charged with racketeering, conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, trespass and invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state.
Trump, prosecutors have alleged, used Powell to launder talking points “critical of a certain voting machine company” to use in her lawsuits alleging massive fraud. Those suits were subsequently dismissed and a federal judge sanctioned Powell over the bogus evidence included in the filings.
Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for rappers Kanye West and R. Kelly, also pleaded not guilty on Tuesday. Charged with three felony offenses, Kutti is accused of participating in the criminal attempt to subvert the election, as well as conspiring to pressure Ruby Freeman, a Georgia election worker, to falsely confess to voter fraud allegations weeks after the 2020 presidential election.
Kutti also waived formal arraignment.