ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL

Ken Chesebro has agreed to plead guilty to a felony in exchange for testimony in the Georgia RICO case.

Chesebro was a main architect of the fake electors plot. The plea finishes the first RICO trial of the 19 defendants charged before it could even begin. Chesebro entered his plea at just about the last moment, since jury selection had just begun when he announced the change in plea.

Chesebro said he had agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents. Chesebro will give a full proffer interview with state prosecutors, write an apology letter, provide records to prosecutors, and testify in future proceedings.

Chesebro agreed to a sentence of five years probation, restitution of $5,000, and 100 hours of community service. Georgia’s first offender law means that his conviction will be expunged upon completion of probation.

That both he and Sidney Powell got probation in cases where they were looking at potential years-long sentences says they will be very helpful when it comes to the orchestrator of the plot.

Chesebro wrote a series of memos in late 2020 and early 2021 in which he argued that the Trump campaign should convene slates of electors in states which Trump lost to masquerade as real ones, sending certificates to Congress and the government. In Chesebro’s thinking, this would give state legislatures, the courts, and whoever Trump managed to bully into having a legal means to grant him the electoral votes to win. 

The plea is a stunning move from an attorney who took a bizarre route to Trumpworld. At Harvard Law, Chesebro was mentored by Constitutional Law Professor Larry Tribe in a group which included future Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and journalist Jeffrey Toobin. Chesebro spent years after law school working with Tribe, known as a premier liberal litigator, in the elite world of appellate law.

Now, after contributing his legal theories to Trump’s effort to stay in power via a coup, Chesebro is a cooperating witness with a felony plea to boot.

Chesebro admitted to an “expansive interpretation” of what the fake electors plot was meant to achieve. By plotting to file false electoral college certificates and have GOP officials “hold themselves out” as real electors, Chesebro purportedly sought to disrupt and delay” the joint session of Congress on January 6.

Chesebro faced seven counts, all of which emerged from his involvement in the fake electors scheme. That included the overarching RICO charge, one count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, two counts of first degree conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements, and one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

Chesebro was arguably the architect of the fake electors scheme; now that he’s admitted it was a lie, it leaves the rest of the conspirators in legal peril. (Trump and Giuliani most prominently)

Chesebro cooperating with the prosecution offers direct line into the inner circle of Trump’s legal effort to reverse his 2020 defeat. Chesebro was at the center of the action. Emails show him strategizing with attorney John Eastman over how maximize their chances at the Supreme Court, while he allegedly held numerous calls with Rudy Giuliani over the fake electors plot.

Chesebro sent documentation across the country and helped corral local GOP officials into participating in the scheme.

Chesebro is the first defendant to plead guilty to a felony. He matches the description of “co-conspirator 5” in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment of Trump for the election plot in D.C.

My take:

Trump always claims he “never settles” but his history is that he “always settles.” And he has done so in ways that were personally humiliating. What’s the over/under he takes a plea to drop his campaign, never run for political office again, turn off “Truth Anti-Social” and do five years home confinement at Mar-A-Lardo (with the golf course thrown in as part of the “home grounds”)? Yeah, it doesn’t put him in prison, but it does take him off the chessboard.

Discuss.

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