[from today's New York Times]
Another Plea Deal in Georgia Election Case Could Increase Peril for Trump
The agreement by the lawyer Kenneth Chesebro to cooperate in the case gives prosecutors a witness who was deeply involved in the scheme to create so-called fake electors.
written by Alan Feuer and Maggie Haberman
Just before Christmas 2020, as President Donald J. Trump was running out of options to stave off losing the election, Kenneth Chesebro wrote an email to a group of other lawyers who were thinking of filing a last-ditch lawsuit to reverse Mr. Trump's defeat.
The odds of winning the suit did not look good, Mr. Chesebro wrote, pegging them at only "1 percent." But even though their efforts were unlikely to prevail in court, Mr. Chesebro suggested that Mr. Trump continue to push his baseless claims of fraud.
"The relevant analysis," Mr. Chesebro argued, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times, "is political."
On Friday, Mr. Chesebro pleaded guilty to a single felony count of conspiring to file false documents in Georgia and agreed to cooperate with the local prosecutors who have charged Mr. Trump and 17 others in a sprawling racketeering indictment accusing them of tampering with the election in the state.
Word of his cooperation deal came one day after Sidney Powell, another lawyer who sought to help Mr. Trump remain in power, reached a similar arrangement with the authorities. Last month, an Atlanta bail bondsman with a minor role in the alleged conspiracy also agreed to plead guilty.
"The three folks who've pled guilty so far have all apparently avoided jail time and I think that's an unmistakable signal to other defendants deciding whether or not they want to plead guilty and cooperate," said Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney and senior F.B.I. official.
But Mr. Chesebro's deal could present a more serious threat to Mr. Trump than the others given that he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count that involved both the former president and some of his closest allies. ...
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5 reader comments
The Gryphon
Seattle
"Wearing a red MAGA hat, Mr. Chesebro can be seen joining Mr. Jones's group outside the Capitol shortly before 2 p.m. that day, according to the photographs and video reviewed by The Times.
The visual evidence shows he stayed with Mr. Jones, Mr. Alexander and others - including Owen Shroyer, one of Mr. Jones's top aides - for about an hour and a half, often filming Mr. Jones on his cellphone as the group walked around the Capitol and went partway up the stairs outside the east front of the building."--NY Times, Aug. 18, 2023.
That he encouraged Trump's lies - that's bad enough - but that Chesebro marched alongside Alex Jones to the Capitol on January 6th shows his complete depravity. Frankly, instead of a plea bargain, I would rather see him locked up, but if he helps put the Orange One in jail, the plea will be worth it.
Adam Stoler
Bronx Urban Warrior
any of these criminals pleading guilty to attempting to subvert our democracy should have as an automatic contingency of their plea deal or sentence: the loss of their law license (state by state)
Start with Georgia and send that disbarment out in national law journals.
Time for these no good grifters to lose their ability to earn a living by their illegal perversions of the law they've sworn to uphold.
Bill
Nebraska
I'm hoping that as a convicted felon Chesebro will lose his law license. That needs to happen.
CFXK
New Hampshire
I am not an attorney, but I assume there are rules and protocols regarding both the extent and the limits of collaboration and coordination between state and federal prosecutors pursuing complementary or related cases against the same defendants.
As these parallel prosecutions of Mr. Trump move forward, it would be helpful if the NYTimes could produce and publish an article exploring these questions - since these questions will be very much in play over the next year.
Ex-pat Steve
San Ramon, Costa Rica
I agree that an op-ed or article on the extent that federal and state trials covering the same acts can cooperate would be beneficial. I am not a lawyer either but it seems to me that any evidence that is presented in a state court trial can be presented as evidence in a subsequent federal trial if it is germane.
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