Left: Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro is sworn in during a plea deal hearing, Oct. 20, 2023, at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta (Alyssa Pointer/Pool Photo via AP, File). Center: Donald Trump booking photo (via Fulton County Sheriff’s Office). Right: Trump campaign attorney James Troupis speaks to Congress about election integrity in Dec. 2020 (Greg Nash/Pool via AP).
A plethora of newly released text messages and emails flowing between a lawyer who pleaded guilty to conspiring to file fake elector slates for Donald Trump in Georgia and a campaign lawyer for the former president offers a startling look into a fast-moving world where Trump’s allies steadily discussed ways to create a “cloud of confusion” in the 2020 election aftermath.
The texts and emails are contained in a more than 1,400-page document. That document surfaced publicly this week after a lawsuit filed by Wisconsin voters and electors against Kenneth Chesebro — the conservative attorney turned Trump co-conspirator in the fake electors case in Georgia — and campaign lawyer Jim Troupis, along with other alleged fake electors in the state, was finally settled.
Chesebro pleaded guilty last November to charges in the pending Georgia election racketeering case. He is not alone; Trump campaign lawyer and co-conspirator Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty a month earlier after Sidney Powell pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor charges after cutting a deal with federal prosecutors. Co-conspirator Scott Hall, a Georgia bail bondsman charged with breaching election system equipment, also pleaded guilty to five misdemeanor charges, including conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties.
