Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, architect of the scheme that saw Republicans in Georgia and other swing states falsely claim to be official 2020 presidential electors, took a last-minute plea deal with prosecutors in the election interference racketeering case Friday.
Hours after the first 450 jurors appeared at the Fulton County Courthouse to fill out a questionnaire ahead of an expected monthslong trial where he faced seven felony counts, Chesebro and his attorneys pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.
Chesebro's deal includes five years of probation, $5,000 in restitution to the secretary of state's office, 100 hours of community service, a letter of apology, an agreement to testify in future trials and to hand over remaining documents and text messages to the district attorney's office.
Chesebro authored a series of memos outlining ways Republicans could falsely submit documents in states where Joe Biden won the Electoral College in a scheme that sought to create dueling slates for Republicans in Congress to reject the results and help former President Donald Trump be declared the winner.
This is the third plea deal in the 19-person racketeering case that includes Trump, joining attorney Sidney Powell and bail bondsman Scott Hall, who both helped orchestrate an effort to illegally copy election data in Coffee County.
Powell and Chesebro both sought speedy trials and filed a litany of motions to minimize or dismiss the charges against them, all of which were unsuccessful. Powell entered her guilty plea Thursday.
Now, with both Powell and Chesebro accepting deals from prosecutors, there will be no trial until later down the road. The Fulton County DA's office estimated this trial would last up to five months and include more than 150 witnesses as it planned to outline the entire racketeering conspiracy case before a jury.
