Fulton County prosecutors signal they may soon offer plea deals

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN

(CNN) — Fulton County prosecutors on Friday signaled they may soon extend a plea deal to one or both defendants headed to trial next month in the 2020 election subversion case in Georgia.

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 on charges related to alleged plots to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state.

Trial dates for former President Donald Trump and the other 16 co-defendants have not been set.

Prosecutor Nathan Wade said during the hearing that while the district attorney’s office has not yet offered a plea deal to Powell or Chesebro, it may soon.

“We have not, at this point, made an offer,” Wade said during the hearing.

“Is the state in a position to make one in the near future?” Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the case, asked.

“Judge, I believe that we can,” Wade said. “We’ll sit down and kind of put some things together, and we’ll reach out to defense counsel individually to extend an offer.”

Defense attorneys didn’t address the potential for a plea deal during the hearing, and if offers are extended, they could still opt to go to trial.

Scott Grubman, an attorney for Chesebro, said in a recent interview that he and his client are “headed right towards trial.”

“Is this case gonna go to trial? My answer is yes unless the state does the right thing and drops the case against Mr. Chesebro,” Grubman said. “Do I think they’re going to do that? Very unlikely. And therefore, we’ll be at trial.”

McAfee predicted the first trial would last three to five months, with Fridays and holidays off.

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