Third Trump Co-Defendant Pleads Guilty: Kenneth Chesebro to Cooperate With Georgia Prosecutors

ATLANTA — Pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro struck a guilty plea deal on Friday in the Georgia election racketeering indictment, the third original co-defendant to strike a cooperation agreement with prosecutors ahead of trials for Donald Trump and 15 others.

Chesebro, a Harvard-educated lawyer, is the alleged architect of the ‘fake’ electors scheme. That's the plan to appoint ‘alternate’ pro-Trump electors in battleground states Trump lost, a key part of disrupting the counting and certification of electoral votes in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

His guilty plea — first reported by Lawfare and confirmed moments later in open court during a hearing carried live on the judge's YouTube channel — comes on the same day the first group of 450 Fulton County adults reported for jury duty in superior court, with a trial that had been expected to run through the end of 2023.

Another Trump co-defendant, Sidney Powell, pleaded guilty on Thursday in the Georgia case. She agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a prison sentence and also avoided trial. Co-defendant Scott Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman, entered his own surprise guilty plea in late September.

Originally charged with seven felony counts in the case, Chesebro pleaded guilty Friday to a single count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.

Under terms of Chesebro's plea deal, he's been ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution and will serve five years of probation. He also must complete 100 hours of community service and write an apology letter to the citizens of the state of Georgia. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee indicated that Chesebro had already provided that letter to the court.

Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who worked in connection with former U.S. President Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign, appears before Judge Scott McAfee in a hearing related to the 2020 election interference case on October 10, 2023 in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta, Georgia. Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images

Chesebro also gave a proffer to the state and will turn over evidence the state requests. He must testify truthfully and may not speak to other defendants or the media about the case.

The pro-Trump lawyer requested the state treat him as a first offender under the Georgia First Offender Act, which allows their criminal cases to be sealed. His attorney, Scott Grubman, like with the other defendants who have pleaded guilty, requested language in the final disposition form that states Chesebro is not guilty of any crimes of “moral turpitude.”

“I agree and find that there is a sufficient factual basis for the charges, as proffered by the state, and I find that this plea of guilty is knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently entered,” McAfee said in brief remarks approving the plea.

No trial dates have been scheduled yet for Trump or any of his other co-defendants, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Chesebro is widely understood to match the description of unindicted Co-Conspirator No. 5 in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s four-count indictment of Trump, brought on Aug.1, for alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Smith's indictment describes that person as “an attorney who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”

Chesebro resides in Puerto Rico, and his lawyer near the conclusion of the hearing raised a question about transferring his client's probation to the United States territory.

“I am perfectly willing to stay for three to four days to handle the logistical elements of this,” Chesebro said, thanking the judge for how he handled the proceedings.