Who Is Kenneth Chesebro? Trump Attorney Behind ‘Fake Electors’ Strategy Reportedly Hid Tweets From Investigators. - Forbes

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Topline

Kenneth Chesebro, the ex-Trump attorney behind the former president’s 2020 "fake electors" scheme, tweeted anonymously about how state lawmakers could reverse President’s Joe Biden's election win, and later hid the account from investigators, CNN reported—bringing new attention to the once-unknown lawyer.

Key Facts

Chesebro laid down his brazen fake electors scheme in a memo obtained by the New York Times, dated December 6, 2020, calling on GOP electors in six swing states to cast new ballots for then-President Donald Trump and send them to Washington for a January 6 congressional certification as though Trump had been elected.

According to the strategy, Trump would “force” lawmakers, the media and the public to “focus on the substantive evidence of illegal election and counting activities in the six contested states,” Chesebro wrote, while former Vice President Mike Pence would then either delay the vote count or block the confirmation of the election—which Pence refused to do.

Chesebro, however, admitted he was “not necessarily advising” that the strategy be implemented, and that “there are many reasons” why it might not work.

Chesebro, who is believed to be an unindicted co-conspirator in the Department of Justice’s indictment of Trump, has faced criticism over his role in the fake electors plot, though he hasn’t faced the same fate as former Trump attorney John Eastman, the former legal scholar and so-called mastermind behind the dubious fake electors legal theory who is facing disbarment and is reportedly concerned about facing federal charges.

However, Chesebro did plead guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to commit false documents in the Georgia election subversion case that led to criminal charges against Trump, and has also testified in front of a Nevada grand jury and been in contact with Arizona state prosecutors.

Chesebro was also one of five Trump aides and lawyers to receive a criminal referral last December from the committee, following its 18-month investigation—along with Eastman, Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jeffrey Clark, as well as Trump himself.

News Peg

CNN reported Monday that Chesebro had maintained an anonymous account on X—formerly known as Twitter—in which he tweeted about strategies to overturn Trump’s 2020 loss. According to the report, Chesebro promoted a “far more aggressive” plot than he had admitted to investigators, laying the groundwork on X for a scheme to overturn the results of the election even in the event Trump lost his legal battles—despite later claiming the fake electors were primarily a backup plan in case Trump won his legal cases. Chesebro denied using X when asked last year by Michigan prosecutors. His legal team, however, told CNN the account in question—BadgerPundit—belonged to Chesebro, though they downplayed his posts as a “random stream of consciousness” and separate from his work with Trump. The Trump attorney does not face any charges in Michigan, where he has been cooperating with state investigators.

Surprising Fact

Despite his connection with Trump, Chesebro had promoted a swath of liberal causes as a lawyer and was registered as a Democrat as recently as 2016, the Washington Post reported.

Key Background

Chesebro’s memo shows how his fake electors scheme developed quickly in the months after the 2020 election. That memo was dated one month after a previous memo to Jim Troupis—a Wisconsin attorney who challenged the results of President Joe Biden’s win in the state—in which Chesebro laid out the fake electors plan as an effort to protect Trump’s rights if he won a future court battle and was declared the winner in that state, using the fake electors’ ballots as evidence. One month later, however, Chesebro reportedly had made the scheme a central tenet of his plan to overturn the election nationally, writing in the December 6, 2020, memo obtained by the Times that “it seems feasible that the Trump campaign can prevent Biden from amassing 270 electoral votes” needed to win the presidential election during a congressional proceeding to confirm the results of the election.

Tangent

Trump pleaded not guilty in August to four felony counts following the DOJ’s investigation into the former president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden—one of four criminal indictments he has faced since launching his reelection bid late last year. The charges levied against Trump by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith included conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy against rights and obstruction of an official proceeding—which all carry potential prison sentences if Trump is convicted. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and slammed prosecutors for waiting until the 2024 election cycle was well underway to bring charges against him, while his legal team has argued his claims of widespread voter fraud were protected by his First Amendment right to free speech.

Contra

Trump’s legal team has had significant turnover over the past three years as the former president faces a slew of legal battles. Nearly a dozen of Trump’s attorneys have departed, including Jim Trusty, who abruptly withdrew from Trump’s criminal defense team in the DOJ’s classified documents investigation in June, following the likes of John Rowley, Tim Parlatore, Rudy Giuliani, Cleta Mitchell, Sidney Powell, Bryan Hughes, Linda Kerns and John Scott.