Atlanta (United States), 21/08/2023.- The front entrance of the Fulton County Courthouse after a grand jury indictment against former US President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants for 2020 election interference in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 21 August 2023. Lawyers for Trump have agreed to a $200,000 US dollar bail and other stipulations according to media reports. Defendants in the case have until noon on 25 August 2023 to surrender at the Fulton County Jail. EFE/EPA/ERIK S. LESSER

First of 18 accused along Trump in Georgia pleads guilty

Washington, Sept 29 (EFE).- Scott Hall, one of the 18 accused along with former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) for fraud in Georgia, pleaded guilty on Friday to trying to manipulate the results of the 2020 elections.

Hall, a 59-year-old bail bondsman, is the first of the defendants to plead guilty in the Fulton County case.

He accepted five misdemeanor charges as part of a deal his attorneys negotiated with prosecutors, according to live court video.

Hall was accused of conspiring to gain unlawful access to ballot-counting machines at the Coffee County Board of Elections office on Jan. 7, 2021.

He spent hours in a restricted area of the Election Office, where he was videotaped, as voting systems were breached, which was linked to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud.

Hall admitted to gaining access to voting machines after testifying before a special grand jury in the Fulton County case.

As part of the plea agreement, the severity of the charges was reduced and it was determined that he must serve five years of probation, in addition to paying a $5,000 fine and performing 200 hours of community service.

Prosecutors may also ask him to testify against other defendants in the case, including Trump.

Trump is the first former president in the history of the United States to be indicted and has already accumulated four criminal cases.

In addition to Georgia, he faces justice in New York for irregular payments he made during the 2016 campaign to silence porn actress Stormy Daniels for an “affair.”

He also faces a Florida trial for taking classified documents to his Mar-a-Lago estate when he left the White House in Jan. 2021.

Finally, he must respond in Washington for the 2021 attack on the Capitol, in which his supporters tried to interrupt the legislative process to certify Biden’s victory in 2020. EFE

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