Kenneth Chesebro is cooperating with investigators in another case involving Donald Trump's effort to overturn his 2020 election loss, and that fresh evidence could help special counsel Jack Smith in his effort to convict the former president.
The right-wing lawyer has already pleaded guilty in Georgia, where he was among 18 co-defendants charged alongside Trump, and he has already testified there and in Michigan about the fake electors scheme he helped concoct.
And as MSNBC columnist Hayes Brown explained in a recent piece, Chesebro had good reason to assist in those probes and possibly others in Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin.
"It’s no surprise that Cheseboro is now singing like a bird; he’s right to worry about facing charges in other states. Among his co-defendants in Georgia are three of the state’s fake electors," Brown wrote. "It’s not clear whether Cheseboro is also sharing information with Smith for the federal case, in which Cheseboro an unnamed, unindicted co-conspirator. But even if he isn’t, it seems likely that Smith will benefit from the details that Cheseboro is providing state-level prosecutors."
Trump has been indicted in two separate election subversion cases, along with two other indictments on unrelated charges, and while it's not clear that other states would consider charging him for trying to overturn his loss, Chesebro's cooperation has to be worrying for the former president.
"[Fulton County district attorney Fani] Willis and Smith haven’t been directly collaborating, as the former made abundantly clear before announcing her sprawling indictment," Brown wrote. "But given the overlap between the two, it’s likely that they’ve spoken to many of the same people. And the more information that is publicly available, the better it is for Smith’s case — and the worse it is for Trump."
Those state investigations could squeeze Trump even tighter as new evidence gets added to Smith's pile, Brown wrote.
"That isn’t to say that Trump won’t once again find some way to dodge justice," Brown said. "But never before has he faced so many legal threats on so many fronts in so short a timeframe. Even as he’s attempted to use that time crunch to his advantage, desperately hoping that a win next November will shield him once more, he has already taken more Ls in the courts than the political system has been willing to dole out to him."
"The odds have never been worse for Trump," he added, "especially with the number of former friends he has out there looking to save their own skins."
