Kenneth Chesebro’s plea deal could be very bad for Trump — in more than one case: analysis

23 October 2023

Former Donald Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro were the first co-defendants scheduled to go to trial in Fulton County, Georgia's District Attorney Fani Willis' criminal case against the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner. But neither trial came about.

On Thursday, October 19, Powell entered a "guilty" plea to six misdemeanor charges in an Atlanta courtroom. Powell, according to a plea agreement with Willis' office, will avoid prison but receive six years of probation — and must fully cooperate with prosecutors.

Chesebro, similarly, is avoiding a criminal trial and possible prison thanks to plea deal that includes five years of probation.

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The Guardian's Hugo Lowell, in an article published on October 23, lays out some reasons why Chesebro's plea deal could be very problematic for Trump.

"The immediate consequence of Kenneth Chesebro's plea deal is that he could incriminate the former president in Georgia, given one of his plea conditions involved testifying truthfully against other defendants," Lowell explains. "But Chesebro could also separately incriminate Trump in the federal criminal case in Washington, should the special counsel Jack Smith use his new admission as evidence that Trump conspired to defraud the United States in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election."

Chesebro, Lowell stresses, was a key player in the "fake electors" scheme in 2020 — a plan to take the Electoral College votes that now-President Joe Biden legitimately won and give them to Trump.

Lowell explains, "At issue for Trump is that Chesebro's plea deal in Fulton County required him to admit guilt to count 15 in the indictment — that Trump and Chesebro and others violated the law in filing the fake electors certificate — and thereby affirm that the fake electors were indeed fraudulent…. The fact that Chesebro gave a statement means that if it were to be shared with the special counsel, federal prosecutors in Washington could use that to bolster their conspiracy to defraud case against Trump now, regardless of if and when Chesebro takes the stand in Georgia."

Hugo Lowell's full analysis for The Guardian is available at this link.

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