Ethics
Once-liberal lawyer said to be ‘brains’ behind 2020 election-interference scheme suspended from practice
Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro sits with his attorney Manny Arora during a hearing in which Chesebro accepted a plea deal at the Fulton County Courthouse on Oct. 20, 2023, in Atlanta. (Photo by Alyssa Pointer via the Associated Press)
A New York appeals court has ordered the interim suspension of lawyer Kenneth Chesebro following his guilty plea in Georgia’s 2020 election-interference case.
Chesebro was “the brains” behind a fake-elector scheme intended to help then-President Donald Trump win the 2020 election, according to Harvard Law School professor emeritus Laurence Tribe, who had once mentored Chesebro.
The once-liberal Chesebro had helped Tribe represent former Democratic Vice President Al Gore in litigation that led to the 2000 presidential victory for former President George W. Bush.
The fake-elector scheme involved creating fake slates of electors in six contested states that could be accepted by then-Vice President Mike Pence to declare Trump the winner.
Chesebro pleaded guilty in Georgia in October 2023 to a single felony charge of conspiracy to file false documents. The felony constitutes a serious crime in New York, according to an Oct. 31 opinion by the Appellate Division’s Third Judicial Department of the New York Supreme Court.
The appeals court said Chesebro’s guilty plea constituted a conviction, even though he could be “completely exonerated of guilt” if he successfully completes a five-year probationary period.
Publications with coverage of the suspension include NBC News, Reuters, Law360, Law.com and the New York Times.
