New emails uncovered by the New York Times show that MAGA lawyer Ken Chesebro thought filing a lawsuit to block President Joe Biden's win in Wisconsin was all but doomed to fail but he pressed to do it anyway because it would give congressional Republicans political cover to throw out certified election results.
In one email, Chesebro argued of the Wisconsin lawsuit that "just getting this on file means that on Jan. 6, the [Supreme Court] will either have ruled on the merits or, vastly more likely, will have appeared to dodge again,” which he said would enhance “the impression that the courts lacked the courage to fairly and timely consider these complaints, and justifying a political argument on Jan. 6 that none of the electoral votes from the states with regard to which the judicial process has failed should be counted.”
Chesebro further acknowledged that there was only a "one percent" chance that the Supreme Court would rule in the Trump campaign's favor but emphasized the "political value" of putting the lawsuit out there to sow doubts about the outcome of the election.
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"The public should come away from this believing that the election in Wisconsin was likely rigged, and stolen by Biden and Harris, who were not legitimately elected," he wrote.
Chesebro, one of many Trump lawyers to be indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for his efforts to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election to Biden, has argued that he was only providing legal advice to the former president that was protected by the First Amendment, although the Times writes that the new emails "could undercut" that defense by demonstrating Chesebro was pushing political, rather than legal, angles.
