Former Wisconsinite, Lawyer Chesebro pleads guilty in Georgia

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On Friday, Attorney Kenneth Chesebro pleaded guilty to a felony moments before Voir Dire was slated to begin in Georgia.

The case stems from his efforts to overturn 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, where former President Donald J. Trump had lost.

According to the terms Chesebro reached with prosecutors, he struck a deal avoiding prison in exchange for valuable evidence, potentially implicating various other defendants, including Trump.

Under the plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy for filing multiple false documents. He agreed to a sentence of three to five years of probation, and a $1,000 fine. Additionally, he would have to pay $5,000 in restitution to Georgia and serve 100 hours of community service.

Additionally, he will have to testify under oath against co-defendants in the case, if the respective cases reach trial.

According to Court Documents obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal, on or about October 18, the Court held a hearing concerning Defendant’s motion filed September 20, 2023, seeking exclusion of any memoranda and emails written by the Defendant in furtherance of campaign legal strategy. (Doc. 56). The Defendant argued that these communications are protected by attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine due to their creation through his role as a lawyer for then-President Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign. The Court denied the motion.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, Chesebro’s lawyers filed a motion in September in Fulton County, Georgia asking the court to dismiss charges against him in the Georgia “election interference case.”

The former Wisconsin Democrat turned Trump attorney says he acted “within his capacity as a lawyer” for former President Donald Trump, claiming he was only trying to find solutions for his client’s “particularized needs.”

“Mr. Chesebro acted as any attorney in his position would; he utilized his expertise and legal acumen to present a good faith solution to a client using precedent and research. Even assuming arguendo that Mr. Chesebro’s analysis pushed on the bounds of the law (which, to be clear, it did not given the ECA’s language cited above) this behavior would not be outside the confines of any lawyer advocating for new law or precedent,” the motion states.

Election interference

In a motion obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal, lawyers argued “Mr. Chesebro is alleged to have acted in ways that interfered with Georgia’s rules, processes, and procedures of determining its electors for the 2020 presidential election. However, every action undertaken by Mr. Chesebro, however limited, was justified under Georgia and Federal law. Mr. Chesebro, being an expert in constitutional law, acted within his capacity as a lawyer in researching and finding precedents in order to form a legal opinion which was then supplied to his client, the Trump Campaign. Nothing about Mr. Chesebro’s conduct falls outside the bounds of what lawyers do on a daily basis; researching the law in order to find solutions that address their clients particularized needs.”

According to court documents, Cheesebro is represented by attorneys Scott Grubman, Chilivis Grubman, and Manubir Arora.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, two Wisconsinites including Brian Schimming, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, have been called out for their alleged role in organizing fraudulent electors in Wisconsin during the 2020 Presidential Election.

As Wisconsin has once again been thrust into the national spotlight, Wisconsin-native and one of Trump’s attorney, Kenneth Chesebro, was one of five Trump lawyers and aides who received a criminal referral last December, following its 18-month investigation, and was also named in the recent Georgia case.

The latest grand jury indictment out of Fulton County, Georgia, obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal says Trump was one of 19 others who participated in a “criminal enterprise.” The 19 individuals are now formally accused of unlawfully changing the outcome of the 2020 election.

Also as previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, a former Milwaukee Foley & Lardner partner on board of Bradley Foundation was recently referred for criminal charges in Georgia special grand jury report.

North Carolina-based attorney Cleta Mitchell, a former Milwaukee partner with Foley & Lardner and current Board member of the Bradley Foundation, was recommended to be charged by the same Georgia special purpose grand jury that initially investigated former President Donald Trump and his allies attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The same special grand jury report recommended criminal charges for three dozen people, including 21 who weren’t charged last month.

On Jan. 2, 2021, Mitchell participated in the phone call then-President Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to locate 11,780 votes to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the Peach state. Prior to that, on Dec. 14, 2020, Mitchell was also allegedly involved in a meeting with more than a dozen Republicans at the Georgia State Capitol where documents were executed falsely claiming Trump won the Georgia electoral college.