Jury selection begins Friday in ex-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro’s trial in Fulton County, Georgia, for helping former President Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 election, becoming the first of the 19 defendants to go to trial—though it still remains to be seen whether he’ll follow co-defendant Sidney Powell by taking a last-minute plea deal.
Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, appears before Judge Scott MacAfee during a motions hearing on Oct. 10 in ... [+]
Chesebro was charged with seven felony counts for racketeering, conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree (two counts) and conspiracy to commit false statements and writings (two counts).
Most of the counts against Chesebro concern his role in what’s known as the “fake electors” scheme, in which the Trump campaign orchestrated a plan for GOP officials in battleground states to vote on “alternate” slates of electors that falsely claimed Trump won the state, which were then submitted to Congress despite Trump not actually winning.
Chesebro’s charges of false documents, impersonating a public officer, forgery and false statement all center on documents and efforts linked to the fake elector scheme, including the certificate of false electors that was submitted in Georgia and the notice of its filing.
The indictment alleges Chesebro sent multiple memos advocating for the the fake elector scheme that outlined how it would work, and also held discussions on the strategy and sent documents regarding it to officials in battleground states—which aren’t crimes in themselves, but helped to further a broader criminal conspiracy to overturn the election result, prosecutors allege.
It also alleges Chesebro furthered the conspiracy by working with attorneys John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani on efforts to stop Congress from certifying the vote count on January 6, 2021, outlining strategies on “disrupting and delaying” the certification process and saying they would be “preferable to allowing the Electoral Count Act to operate by its terms.”
Chesebro has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, alleging he was simply doing his job as a lawyer and that the charges against him are “wholly invalid” because the actions he’s accused of all took place after Georgia submitted its election results to Congress, which means they’d be governed under federal law and not state law.
Jury selection is getting underway Friday with a questionnaire for jurors to fill out, before individual questioning begins on Monday. The trial is expected to take three to five months once selection is complete. Chesebro is the first defendant in the Fulton County case but it’s still unclear when the others could follow, with no other trial dates being announced yet—including for Trump.
“Mr. Chesebro acted as any attorney in his position would; he utilized his expertise and legal acumen to present a good faith solution to a client using precedent and research,” Chesebro’s attorneys argued in a motion to dismiss the indictment, alleging the his post-election actions were not “outside the confines of any lawyer advocating for new law or precedent.”
Whether Chesebro will take a plea deal before the trial formally gets underway. The attorney was initially supposed to be tried alongside far-right lawyer Powell, who ended up taking a last-minute plea deal Thursday in which she pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors in exchange for serving only six years of probation and paying fines and restitution. Though ABC News reports Chesebro rejected a plea deal himself prior to Powell’s guilty plea, legal experts have suggested her plea deal could change his thinking on the matter. Any plea deal Chesebro reaches could have far-reaching consequences for his co-defendants—including Trump—as the attorney would likely be required to testify at their trials.
Chesebro is the only known co-defendant or Trump attorney to be present at the Capitol building during the January 6, 2021, riot, according to footage obtained by CNN showing him outside the building during the attack. There is no evidence Chesebro entered the Capitol or participated in any violence, but video footage shows him in sections of the Capitol grounds that were cited in an indictment against Infowars host Owen Shroyer as being unlawful to have entered. Chesebro has so far not commented on his apparent participation in the January 6 proceedings, but prosecutors have asked conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who Chesebro was with during the riot, to testify at the trial as a result.
Chesebro is one of 19 defendants and several key Trump attorneys to have been indicted in Georgia, along with Powell, Giuliani and Eastman. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted Trump and his allies on 41 total charges in August following a yearslong investigation, accusing the defendants of racketeering and participating in a widespread criminal conspiracy to “unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.” Chesebro is also believed to be an unnamed co-conspirator in the federal indictment brought against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, but has not been formally charged in that case. The attorney and Powell were the sole defendants who requested a “speedy” trial after being indicted, while others have instead tried to delay the proceedings against them or have them moved to federal court. Prosecutors tried to have all the defendants tried together alongside Chesebro (and, at that time, Powell) rather than split the case up into multiple trials, but Judge Scott McAfee denied that request in September, deciding to split up the cases because trying everyone together would present a number of logistical challenges.
Sidney Powell Pleads Guilty In Georgia Election Case (Forbes)
Ex-Trump Attorney Chesebro Defends Fake Electors In Georgia, Claims They Were ‘Duly Elected’ (Forbes)
Who Is Kenneth Chesebro? The Lesser-Known Trump Attorney Behind 2020 Electors Plot (Forbes)
Trump Attorney Kenneth Chesebro Was Reportedly Outside The Capitol On Jan. 6 (Forbes)