Kenneth Chesebro, the lawyer associated with Donald Trump’s campaign who thought up the legal theory behind the so-called fake electors scheme, appears to have been on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a review of public source video and his own former mentor.
Chesebro was indicted along with Trump and 17 other defendants in Fulton County, Georgia, this week on charges related to the effort to keep Trump in power despite losing the 2020 presidential election.
His presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was first reported by CNN. In addition to identifying Chesebro in the videos, CNN also contacted multiple acquaintances of Chesebro to confirm the identity of the man in the video.
NBC News contacted Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe, Chesebro’s former law professor and mentor. The two men have a well-reported personal relationship and have worked together in the past.
“That is indeed Ken Chesebro,” Tribe wrote in an email after being shown an image of the man identified by CNN. “No doubt about it.”
Chesebro’s lawyers declined to comment. Chesebro previously invoked the 5th Amendment when asked by investigators for the House Jan. 6 committee if he had been in Washington, D.C., during December 2020 through the first week of January 2021, according to his deposition transcript.
Public source videos shot on Jan. 6 show the man believed to be Chesebro walking on Capitol grounds and filming on a cell phone as the crowds grew and got rowdier. The man is wearing a red “Trump” hat and a dark jacket over a white button-up shirt.
At times he can be seen wearing a lanyard with some sort of pass or credential attached. The man is repeatedly seen near the entourage of Infowars host Alex Jones. At no point during the available public source video viewed by NBC News does the man believed to be Chesebro enter the Capitol.
Chesebro has also been identified as one of the unindicted co-conspirators listed in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump on federal charges related to the effort to interfere with the 2020 election and the peaceful transfer of power.
