Read Georgiaâs one sentence long apology letters in 2020 election fraud case

The apology letters written by two of the attorneys who struck plea agreements in the Fulton County election interference case are just one sentence long and hand-written on lined notebook paper.

“I apologize for my actions in connection with the events in Coffee County,” lawyer Sidney Powell stated in her letter on Oct. 19.

“I apologize to the citizens of the State of Georgia and of Fulton County for my involvement in Count 15 of the indictment,” attorney Kenneth Chesebro wrote a day later.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained the letters from defendants Kenneth Chesebro, Sidney Powell and Scott Hall on Thursday through an open records request.

The trio — along with a fourth defendant, Jenna Ellis — were required to pen the letters as part of the terms of their plea agreements with Fulton prosecutors earlier this fall. Chesebro could be seen writing his from the defense table in the minutes before he accepted his deal in front of Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.

But the letters have been in limbo ever since, first sealed by McAfee and then stuck in a bottleneck with other court officials.

A spokesman for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis declined to comment.

Hall, a bail bondsman who was indicted for his role in the Coffee County election data breach, wrote the longest letter of the bunch uncovered on Thursday. He told Georgia citizens, “I wish I had never involved myself in the post-election activities that brought me before the court.”

“Although I certainly did not mean to violate any laws, I now realize that I did and have accepted responsibility for my actions,” Hall wrote.

Ellis, a lawyer who worked for the Trump campaign, tearfully read her apology letter in front of McAfee during a hearing in October.

“I look back on this whole experience with deep remorse,” she said.

During an interview with The Journal-Constitution earlier this week, Willis compared the apology letters to spouses saying sorry for actions that upset their partner.

“If you do something wrong that impacts the community … then there needs to be real contrition,” Willis said. “The contrition doesn’t have to be some poetic melody. It doesn’t have to be pages and pages. Sometimes you just need ‘I’m sorry.’ And if you get ‘I’m sorry,’ then we can move on and move past (it) if it’s a sincere apology.”

She continued, “It doesn’t need to be very long. In fact, all I would rather is a sentence. But I think it’s important.”

Chesebro was indicted for his role in the appointment of a slate of Trump electors in swing states won by Democrat Joe Biden. Like Hall, Powell’s charges stemmed from her involvement in the Coffee County breach. Ellis’ centered on her testimony before a Georgia Senate subcommittee in late 2020 about election fraud in Georgia.

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(Staff writer David Wickert contributed to this article.)

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