ATLANTA — Bail bondsman Scott Hall on Friday became the first defendant in the Fulton County election interference case to take a plea agreement with prosecutors, signaling the probe has entered a dynamic new phase.

During an impromptu hearing before Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, Hall, with his attorney by his side, pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties.

Hall agreed to testify truthfully when called, five years probation, a $5,000 fine, 200 hours of community service and a ban on polling and election administration-related activities. He also recorded a statement for prosecutors and pledged to pen a letter of apology to Georgia voters.

The agreement is a victory for prosecutors, who are preparing for at least two sets of trials involving what is now 18 defendants. Jury selection for the trial involving the first two defendants, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, is slated to begin on Oct. 20.

A spokesman for District Attorney Fani Willis declined to comment.

Hall was indicted last month in connection with the breach of sensitive voting data in Coffee County in South Georgia on Jan. 7, 2021. He had been charged with racketeering and six felony counts of conspiracy.

Hall could be called to testify against Powell, whom prosecutors allege paid for the Coffee County trip as the Trump campaign sought evidence to support its claims of voter fraud.

Hall isn’t as well know as some of the other Trump co-defendants, but he played a wide-ranging role in efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in Georgia. Early in January 2021, he called Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who was also indicted in the Trump case, and they talked for 63 minutes about the presidential election “in furtherance of the conspiracy,” according to the 98-page Fulton indictment.

Prosecutors said Friday that Hall chartered the plane which flew Trump allies and a team of computer analysts to Coffee County, some 200 miles southeast of Atlanta. The group spent hours at the county election office and copied Georgia’s statewide voting system software, which is supposed to be kept secure by election officials.

They also took official ballots outside of the polling place in violation of Georgia law, according to the indictment.

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