Trump ally pleads guilty in election interference case
Georgia bail bondsman Scott Hall, a former Republican poll watcher and Donald Trump supporter, has pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges for his role in an alleged conspiracy to overturn the then-president’s 2020 election defeat in the state.
Scott entered his plea on Friday in Atlanta’s Fulton County District Court under a deal with prosecutors that will spare him the prison time he could have faced under the felony charges that had been filed against him. He became the first Trump backer among the ex-president’s 18 Georgia co-defendants to agree to a plea bargain, and his testimony could help the district attorney’s office win convictions against his alleged co-conspirators.
During Friday’s plea hearing, a prosecutor asked Hall whether he understood that the terms of his probation agreement required him to “testify truthfully at any further court proceedings, to include trials of any co-defendants that is listed on the original indictment in which you were charged.” He replied, “Yes, ma’am.”
The plea agreement calls for Hall to serve five years of probation, pay a $5,000 fine, perform 200 hours of community service, and issue an apology to the state for trying to interfere in the November 2020 election. Prosecutors are expected to use his testimony against other Trump co-defendants, such as Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, and potentially against the former president.
Hall was allegedly involved in a scheme to gain unauthorized access to voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia. The original charges against him included conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to defraud the state, and conspiracy to commit computer theft. He pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to interfere with the performance of an election.
Late last month, Trump pleaded not guilty to the Georgia conspiracy charges against him. He has argued that the indictment is part of an effort by supporters of President Joe Biden to prevent him from winning the 2024 presidential election. He’s currently polling as the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s 2024 nomination.
Attorneys for Trump submitted a legal filing on Thursday indicating that he won’t seek to have his Georgia case moved to a federal court.
