CNN’s Jake Tapper Zings Ex-Trump Lawyer Sidney Powell After Guilty Plea — Trouble For ‘Kraken-Less’ Trump And His Co-Defendants

 

CNN  anchor Jake Tapper let loose a deadpan barrage of zingers at ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, ex-President Donald Trump, and his fellow “Kraken-less” co-defendants as he covered Powell’s guilty plea.

On Thursday morning, attention shifted to Georgia with the blockbuster news that Powell — one of Trump’s 18 co-defendants in the Georgia election crimes case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis — has accepted a plea deal that will require her testimony at future trials.

On Thursday’s edition of The Lead, Tapper roasted Trump and the Gang with multiple references to Powell’s signature phrase, then got the scoop on the plea deal from CNN Chief Legal Affairs Correspondent Paula Reid:

TAPPER: A major development in Donald Trump’s legal troubles today requires us to take a step back in time. Let’s go back to mid-November 2020, Trump’s attorney Sidney Powell promised she would produced vast troves of nonexistent proof that Trump won the election. “I am going to release the kraken,” she said, in a reference to “Clash of the Titans,” on Fox Business, to no pushback.

No kraken was ever produced, because no kraken exists. And the kraken-less Ms. Powell today pleaded guilty in the election subversion case in Fulton County, Georgia.

As CNN’s Paula Reid reports for us now, Powell’s plea could impact Donald Trump and the other kraken-less codefendants.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAYSHA YOUNG, FULTON COUNTY PROSECUTOR: How do you plead to the six counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference of performance of election duties?

SIDNEY POWELL, FORMER TRUMP ATTORNEY: Guilty.

PAULA REID: Former Trump Attorney Sidney Powell appeared in a Georgia courtroom this morning, the second person to plead guilty in the sprawling case over efforts to overturn the 2020 election in that state.

YOUNG: Do you understand that by not pleading guilty, you are giving up the right to trial by jury?

POWELL: Yes.

REID: As part of the deal, Powell will admit her role in the January 2021 breach of voting systems, in rural Coffee County, Georgia, be required to write an apology letter to the citizens of the state, and pay nearly $9,000 in restitution, and finds, as well as turn over documents.

But, she is not expected to face jail time. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of six years, probation.

One name that did not come up at Thursday’s hearing, her codefendant, Donald Trump. The deal is the first by a member of his inner circles.

POWELL: I am going to release the kraken.

REID: Powell was among the most vocal of his lawyers in pushing outlandish claims about the election, including that millions of votes were flipped in a global scheme against Trump.

POWELL: There should never be another election conducted in this country, I don’t care if it’s for a local dog catcher, using a Dominion machine.

REID: Repeating those conspiracy theories eventually proved too much even for Trump, and she was ousted from his team. And, her plea raises new questions about a deal in the federal election subversion case. Trump is the only individual charged in that indictment, but Powell

has been identified by CNN as one of the sixth coconspirators listed by special counsel Jack Smith, who has signaled other people could be charged.

JACK SMITH, SPECIAL COUNSEL PROSECUTING TRUMP: The Department of Justice has remained committed, to ensuring accountability, for those criminally responsible for what happened that day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID (on camera): That federal trial is scheduled to begin in March, and it’s unclear if anyone else will be charged in this case, or if Powell would even be interested in a deal with federal prosecutors. But, Jake, to give you a sense of just how quickly something like this can come about, we have learned that this deal was arranged in about the last 24 hours.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.

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