The Michigan prosecutors investigating efforts to subvert the 2020 election recently obtained hundreds of messages from pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro's online accounts, CNN reported Tuesday, including direct messages from an account he had been using anonymously on X. Chesebro played in instrumental role in promoting the "fake electors" scheme in 2020, under which Trump partisans were to pose as their state's legitimate delegation to the Electoral College.
Prosecutors had issued warrants to Google and X requesting the messages. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessell last year charged 16 people in connection with the fake-elector scheme, although Chesebro himself is not one of them.
The documents obtained by Michigan prosecutors show that Chesebro unsuccessfully tried to convince several pro-Trump figures into going to Washington, DC to watch his “fake electors” strategy unfold on January 6, 2021.
Chesebro offered to pay for the individuals he reached out to, including their airfare and lodging at Trump’s DC hotel. Individuals like former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, and his wife, along with the founder of conspiracy website Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft. There are no current records that show they accepted his offers.
The direct messages also exposed Chesebro's relentless outreach to conservative pundits and right-wing figures after Trump lost the 2020 election. He would push them to publicly promote his theories for how to subvert the Electoral College process.
He appeared to provide Hoft unsolicited advice on how to frame Gateway Pundit’s coverage of the January 6 certification proceedings in Congress. “It would help to publicize that if Pence claims the power to resolve disputes about the electoral votes on Jan. 6, he’d simply be doing what Jefferson did,” read Chesebro’s message to Hoft on December 27, 2020 on X.
Chesebro denied the existence of his secret X account when he met with Nessel’s investigators in December. In fact, he used the accountto send 160 messages between 2014 and 2021, according to the files that X provided investigators.
Legal observers said the messages show the true gravity of the fake-elector plot.
"The content of Chesebro's DMs shows (once again) he pursued the false electors-Pence scheme loooooong after litigation was exhausted," Law Professor at NYU, Ryan Goodman posted on X. "Recall Chesebro also told prosecutors his plan was contingent on litigation succeeding. A false statement. The truth is incriminating."
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