Trump co-defendant Kenneth Chesebro strikes plea deal with Georgia prosecutors

ATLANTA — Trump campaign legal adviser Kenneth Chesebro struck a deal with prosecutors from the Fulton County, Georgia, district attorney’s office in its 2020 election interference case on Friday.

Chesebro, who was charged alongside Donald Trump and more than a dozen other co-defendants with attempting to delay the transfer of power after the 2020 election, was scheduled to stand trial this week.

He accepted the offer as jury selection was underway on Friday, after 450 potential jurors had completed a lengthy questionnaire on what would be asked. He had rejected an earlier deal late last month.

Appearing before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents and agreed to testify in the case as part of the deal.

The Trump attorney faces five years probation, a $5,000 fine, 100 hours of community service, and must continue to provide documents and evidence to the state, according to the terms of the deal.

Chesebro told the court that he had already written an apology letter, another term of the agreement. The deal was offered under Georgia’s First Offender Act, and roughly followed the contours of the plea offer that Chesebro rejected in late September.

Standing beside him was his attorney, Scott Grubman, who said in court that with good behavior, the probationary period could be shortened to three years. 

Chesebro is the second Trump attorney to plead guilty, and the third co-defendant charged in the case to take a plea deal with Fulton County prosecutors. Former Trump attorney Sidney Powell entered a guilty plea unexpectedly on Thursday morning. The two lawyers were set to stand trial together before pleading guilty in the case.

Bail bondsman Scott Hall also struck an agreement after pleading guilty to the conspiracy last month. All three have committed to testify truthfully in the case.

Chesebro was a key architect of an effort to use fake electors from Georgia and other states to disregard electoral college votes for Joe Biden in the last presidential election, in favor of Trump, according to Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis’s indictment.

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Outside the court on Friday, Grubman said it is inaccurate to describe Chesebro as the architect of a plan to overrun democracy. Asked if Trump should be worried, Grubman said: “I don’t think so.”

“He didn’t snitch against anyone. He went in there, he accepted responsibility,” Grubman added, in reference to his client.

He also said the deal allows his client to return to his family and avoid the serious jail time he was facing.

A spokesperson for the Fulton County district attorney’s office declined to comment on the plea deal.

Nineteen people were charged in Willis’ sprawling racketeering case alleging conspiracies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Chesebro had originally pleaded not guilty.

Trump and the 15 other co-defendants in the case, including Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, have pleaded not guilty.