Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney closely aligned with former President Donald Trump, and also one of the co-defendants in Fulton County, Georgia’s election interference case, has taken a plea deal. This comes after Sidney Powell, another former Trump campaign lawyer, did the same on Thursday.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been leading the charge against Trump and 18 of his associates implicated in a racketeering case in which the defendants allegedly tried to improperly overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Now, Chesebro has become the third person to accept a plea deal.
Kenneth Chesebro, a Donald Trump-aligned attorney who helped craft the 2020 fake elector plot, is pleading guilty in the Georgia election subversion case.
The plea deal is another major victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who charged Trump and 18 others in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Thursday, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell also pleaded guilty.
Chesebro originally faced counts including violations of Georgia’s RICO Act and conspiracy to commit forgery.
Chesebro, an attorney, was facing seven counts after prosecutors said he drafted a strategy to use so-called “alternate electors” to prevent Joe Biden from receiving 270 electoral votes in the 2020 election, according to the Fulton County DA’s indictment.
The plea comes a day after former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell took a plea deal in which she received probation in exchange for agreeing to testify in the case.
Powell and Chesebro were both originally scheduled to go to trial next week after both demanded speedy trials.
So far, it is not known whether Chesebro agreed to provide testimony for the prosecution in the trial, but given that it was a condition of Powell’s deal, it stands to reason that this could be the case.
This development was expected. Sources familiar with the case told ABC News that the likelihood of Chesebro accepting a plea deal increased after Powell agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges.
Scott Hall, a bail bondsman who was the first defendant to accept a plea deal, also agreed to provide testimony in the case.
So, what will this mean for Trump?
For the former president, this is not a welcome development. From the beginning, it was abundantly clear that Trump was the primary target of the prosecution. It appeared that the prosecution planned to use the co-defendants as weapons to leverage against what they viewed as the big fish: Donald Trump. If Willis’ office can get more co-defendants to flip on the former president in exchange for more lenient sentences, it will make it much harder for the defense attorneys to defend their client.
We are still a long way from Trump’s actual trial, and anything could happen. But Powell and Chesebro’s seeming defections could portend some difficult times ahead for the former president, who is also facing three other politically-motivated indictments. Chesebro’s plea might be just another domino in a long line, but it is one that the nation will be watching closely.
Using force to make someone plea guilty is something a Nazi government would do. None of the people are guilty of anything but finding the truth. They were probably told that the unjustice system would ruin thier lives.