Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who helped former President Donald Trump contest the results of the 2020 election, is pleading guilty in the state of Georgia’s sprawling election meddling case.
The plea, entered Friday, is a victory for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who charged Trump and 18 others in August. Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to file false documents, making him the second defendant in the case to strike a plea deal in the past two days.
He has agreed to cooperate and testify against the other defendants, and to turn over any outstanding emails and text messages related to the case.
“You’re to testify truthfully in any other proceedings in this case against any and all co-defendants,” Judge Scott McAfee told Chesebro, who lives in Puerto Rico, during the hearing.
Chesebro also agreed to serve five years’ probation, pay $5,000 in restitution to the state of Georgia, write an apology letter and serve 100 hours of community service. The judge instructed him not to talk to the media or any co-defendants in the case.
Chesebro submitted the plea just as jury selection in his trial was beginning. He originally entered a not guilty plea last month, with his lawyers denouncing what they called “attempts by the State to incorrectly paint Mr. Chesebro as the alleged ‘architect of the Trump elector scheme.’”
Several investigations, including an extensive probe by the House of Representatives’ Jan. 6 committee, have pinpointed Chesebro as the brains behind the Trump campaign’s fake electors plan, which attempted to swap out legitimate electoral certificates in Georgia and six other states won by President Joe Biden, and replace them with fraudulent ones declaring Trump the winner. The effort crumbled when former Vice President Mike Pence refused to go along with it.
On Thursday, another defendant, former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, accepted a plea deal that meant she would be cooperating with prosecutors investigating the group.