ATLANTA – One of the 19 defendants in a Georgia racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and his allies pleaded guilty on Friday to five misdemeanour charges, under a deal with prosecutors in which he would receive five years’ probation.

The guilty plea of Scott Hall, 59, a Georgia bail bondsman, was a significant victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who secured an agreement from Hall to testify against other defendants.

No other defendants have taken pleas. Two of them, lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, are scheduled to be tried together starting in October after demanding speedy trials.

Hall had been charged with racketeering, as well as six other felonies, for helping to carry out a breach of voting equipment and data at the elections office in rural Coffee County, Georgia, in January 2021.

He and other Trump allies were apparently looking for evidence of ballot fraud after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

More broadly, the indictment handed up in August accuses Trump and the other defendants of a criminal conspiracy in which they tried in a number of ways to overturn the election results in the state.

Under the terms of the deal, Hall is to pay a US$5,000 (S$6,800) fine, surrender his firearms carry licence, perform 200 hours of community service and write a letter of apology to the people of Georgia.

He is not to participate in any activities related to the administration of elections, and he agreed to testify truthfully against other co-defendants if called upon to do so.

In a separate hearing on Friday, Judge Scott McAfee announced that 450 potential jurors would be called to the courthouse on Oct 20 to fill out a questionnaire before the trial of Powell and Chesebro, who are accused of devising a plan to recruit a group of bogus pro-Trump electors.

Other co-defendants in the case suffered significant setbacks on Friday.

United States District Judge Steve C. Jones on Friday denied efforts by David Shafer, the head of the Georgia Republican Party at the time of the 2020 election; state senator Shawn Still; and Jeffrey Clark, a former high-ranking Justice Department official; to have their cases moved to the federal court, where the jury pool would be somewhat more favourable to Trump. NYTIMES