Sidney Powell guilty plea opens door to her becoming key witness
The decision by attorney Sidney Powell to accept a plea deal in Georgia to avoid jail time in return for testifying for prosecutors in a wide-ranging racketeering trial that includes Donald Trump will have major implications for the former president's other trials.
That is the opinion of CNN legal analyst Elie Hoenig who stated Powell will now become a valuable witness for Special Counsel Jack Smith's pursuit of the former president in a Washington D.C. courtroom.
Moments after news broke that Powell took a deal, which was predicted by former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance writing for MSNBC earlier, Hoenig explained to CNN co-hosts John Berman and Kate Bolduan that Trump's legal problems just grew exponentially worse.
"It is important to remember who Sidney Powell is," he began after being prompted by Bolduan. "She is one of Donald Trump's closest loyalists, she is someone Donald Trump has claimed he relied on in his efforts to steal the election."
"This a major breakthrough for prosecutors that could be potentially devastating to Donald Trump," he continued before adding, "What is going to happen now is that Sidney Powell is going to testify for prosecutors in Georgia and presumably, is prepared to testify for Jack Smith in the case in Washington, D.C."
'A big deal': New Jack Smith filing reveals concessions made by Walt Nauta's lawyer
Jack Smith wants it to be known that the attorney for former President Donald Trump's valet might be disqualified from asking questions of his former client.
The prosecutor's additional briefing states that "Defendant Waltine Nauta’s attorney Stanley Woodward Jr. cannot ethically cross-examine former client Trump Employee 4, who will be a significant witness at trial," according to the document.
It was flagged by legal expert Katie Phang in a social media post. She noted the reason for this assertion is because Woodward used to represent the unnamed “Trump Employee 4” and currently represents “Witness 1.”
Woodward had represented IT director Yuscil Taveras during the time that there was false testimony given to a grand jury about video surveillance footage captured at Mar-a-Lago, as described in an earlier filing.
It was only when Taveras parted ways with Woodward and secured a new lawyer that he came forward to admit he was asked to destroy security footage, those papers say, according to CNBC.
In her thread citing the documents, Phang also noted how Nauta’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, was conceding that “his ethical obligations may constrain his ability to discredit Trump Employee 4 or Witness 1 in closing arguments.”
Woodward and his legal team, the recent filing states, appear to be attempting to cede "any cross-examination" when ethical issues arise to "co-counsel."
Smith appeared to heap praise on another attorney, John Irving, who is representing Mar-a-Lago maintenance man Carlos De Oliveira.
Smith's filing suggests Irving was on point when he "informed the Court and the Government that he would no longer represent the potential witnesses, and his co-counsel would be solely responsible for cross-examining the witnesses at trial."
However, Woodward, in contrast, "simply denied that any conflict existed, suggesting that he should be permitted to cross-examine Trump Employee 4."
Phang weighed in on Smith's legal maneuvering.
"Woodward’s ability to attack current and former clients’ credibility during closing arguments was a huge sticking point last week when we were last in court before Judge Cannon," she wrote in the post thread, adding a quote from the filing that these kinds of ethical situations “frequently disqualify attorneys even where the attorneys propose that another attorney will conduct the cross-examination of a former client.”
Phang added that "Woodward’s concessions to the Government as represented in tonight’s filing are a big deal."
"He was complaining so much before Judge Cannon and yet now he concedes much of what the DOJ was arguing to the court last week," she wrote Wednesday.
