Trump co-defendant Chesebro testified in Nevada to avoid charges: Court records

Kenneth Chesebro, the lawyer who helped craft former President Trump’s fake elector plot in 2020, testified before a secret grand jury in Nevada last month in order to avoid charges, according to a newly released transcript of the testimony.

The court filing, which was released Sunday, shows prosecutors had requested Chesebro’s name be removed from the indictment in exchange for his full cooperation with the Nevada criminal investigation into the scheme to keep Trump in power by submitting a false slate of electors.

Chesebro’s testimony took place about a week before six of the so-called fake electors were charged in Nevada with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument. They all pleaded not guilty Monday.

The testimony also came on the heels of a separate plea agreement that Chesebro struck in Georgia, where he was among the 19 defendants, including Trump, charged in a wide-reaching Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act indictment related to their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

In Georgia, Chesebro pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents, and six other counts were dropped.

According to the transcript in Nevada, Chesebro detailed his central role in the fake elector plot, particularly as it relates to Nevada. He explained to the jury the theory behind the scheme, as he outlined it in a memo to Republicans in targeted states.

Chesebro explained that the memo was meant to encourage Trump electors in states with pending election-related litigation to submit the electoral votes for Trump regardless of whether Trump actually won the state — with the hope courts would ultimately rule in Trump’s favor.

Chesebro said he stressed to them that “they have to send in their electoral votes to Washington on Dec. 14 if there’s any hope that … those would be counted on Jan. 6 when congress convenes and counted in favor of Trump.”

“And what I explained in the memo detail is that even if the Trump campaign hasn’t won the state on Dec. 14, it’s imperative that the votes be sent in, because if the votes aren’t sent in and the Trump campaign won a week or two later and everybody agreed that Trump had won Wisconsin, congress cannot constitutionally count the votes in favor of Trump on Jan. 6 if that paperwork had not been sent in on time,” he added.

Chesebro testified that he noted his specific concern about Nevada’s election laws and regulations.

“Nevada is an extremely problematic state, because it requires the meeting of the electors to be overseen by the secretary of state, who is only supposed to permit electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote in Nevada,” Chesebro said in the memo, which he read aloud in court.

Earlier reports previously confirmed Chesebro had met with counsel in Nevada late last month. The Washington Post reported that Nevada officials have offered Chesebro a “proffer” agreement where they agreed not to charge him in exchange for truthful testimony.