Twenty-four of the so-called fake Trump electors now face criminal charges in three different states, and one of the legal architects of the plan to deploy them, Kenneth Chesebro, has emerged as a witness in all the cases.
Chesebro, a Harvard-trained lawyer, helped develop the plan to have Republicans in battleground states won by Joe Biden in 2020 present themselves as Trump electors. The scheme was part of an effort to have Congress block or delay the certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
A Nevada grand jury this week indicted six former Trump electors, including top leaders of the state’s Republican Party, on charges of forging and submitting fraudulent documents.
In August, a grand jury in Atlanta returned an indictment against former President Donald Trump and 18 allies, including three who were fake electors in Georgia. And in July, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel brought charges against all 16 Republicans who acted as Trump electors in her state. (In October, she dropped charges against one of them, James Renner, in exchange for his cooperation.)
Interest in Chesebro intensified after he pleaded guilty in October to a single felony charge of conspiracy in Georgia and was sentenced to five years probation. He had originally been charged with seven felonies, including one charge under the state racketeering law.
“Everything happened after the plea in Georgia,” said Manny Arora, one of Chesebro’s lawyers in Georgia. “Everyone wants to talk about the memos and who he communicated with.”
The lawyer was referring to memos written by Chesebro after the 2020 election that outlined what he himself called “a bold, controversial strategy” likely to be rejected by the Supreme Court. Since his plea agreement in Georgia, Arora said, Chesebro was interviewed in Detroit by Nessel’s office, and he was also listed as a witness this week in the Nevada indictment.
Asked if Chesebro had agreements in place to avoid…
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