Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of Trump’s fake elector scheme, pleads guilty in Georgia

Kenneth Chesebro, the attorney who helped orchestrate Donald Trump’s effort to recruit false electors to subvert the 2020 election, pleaded guilty Friday in a Georgia court to his role in the scheme.

Chesebro’s plea, to a single felony count of conspiring to file false documents, is the first criminal consequence for any of the figures most closely associated with Trump’s bid to upend Congress’ proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021, in part by transmitting certificates from the false electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence.

Chesebro’s guilty plea comes a day after another former Trump attorney, Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors. Before their plea deals, Chesebro and Powell had been set to go to trial next week — a trial that would have forced prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga., to lay out much of their evidence against Trump.

Now, they won’t have to and instead will be aided by promises of cooperation from Chesebro and Powell. No trial date has been set yet for Trump and 16 other defendants in the sprawling racketeering case.

Chesebro’s plea deal is the first admission by any of the attorneys involved in the false elector effort that the plan veered into criminality. Prosecutors say that effort was part of a “multistate conspiracy” to subvert the 2020 election by violating federal election laws and stoking improper challenges to Joe Biden’s victory.

Chesebro wrote a series of memos in November and December 2020 that described the push to send pro-Trump electors to Congress — even in states won by Biden — as a way to preserve Trump’s chances to prevail in post-election legal battles. But as Jan. 6 approached, Chesebro also noted that the existence of the false electors could be used to provoke challenges to the outcome by pro-Trump members of Congress and potentially flip the outcome even without a legal victory.

Under the deal, Chesebro, 62, will avoid jail time and instead serve a sentence of five years probation, pay $5,000 in restitution and perform 100 hours of community service. He will also be required to testify against co-defendants at any future trial, and he has written a letter of apology to the people of Georgia, Judge Scott McAfee said at a brief hearing just after noon Friday in Fulton County Superior Court.

If Chesebro successfully complies with the sentence, the case will be officially sealed, leaving him without a criminal record, the judge added.