Suggestions that a top Donald Trump associate has been cooperating in the Arizona fake electors criminal investigation may encourage others to flip, a legal expert said.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance was reacting to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announcing that 18 people, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump's former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, have been indicted as part of an investigation into alleged attempts to falsely declare Trump had won the state in the 2020 election.
Trump isn't charged in the probe, but he is listed as "Unnamed Coconspirator 1" throughout the indictment. Another person heavily mentioned in the Arizona indictment is Unnamed Conspirator 4, who is believed to be Kenneth Chesebro, a Trump lawyer who took a plea deal in October 2023 after being charged in the Georgia election interference case alongside Trump and 18 others.
After pleading guilty to a single felony charge, Chesebro is reported to have cooperated with investigators looking into fake elector schemes during the 2020 presidential election in at least four states. In March, Chesebro was reported by ABC News to have voluntarily sat for an interview with investigators from Mayes' office as part of the fake electors plot investigation.
Writing in her Civil Discourse blog, Vance said that Chesebro not being charged in Arizona suggests that he did cooperate with authorities, and that other defendants could be persuaded to follow.
"Kenneth Chesebro may be cooperating with prosecutors. He is not charged—but seems to be one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the case," Vance wrote.
"There were earlier reports that he was cooperating with Arizona prosecutors. If that cooperation is fulsome, it could lead to a situation where people he is able to testify against become highly motivated to cooperate as well."
Former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann also suggested that the "main reason" Chesebro wasn't indicted in Arizona is that he is cooperating.
"Or maybe I should say at least cooperating enough to not be charged," Weissmann told MSNBC's The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell.
"Otherwise hard to explain why his name does not appear and presumably it's because he has counsel who has said, 'Look, if you do not want to be 'on the other side of a v,' meaning United States versus or in this case Arizona versus, you need to start finding religion and join team America," Weissmann added.
"So, it's possible that is the main reason that you don't see his name here, because otherwise... he was in the thick of things and we know that actually also from his own plea in Georgia."
Chesebro's legal team has been contacted for comment via email.
Chesebro was found to have written a series of memos in late 2020 instructing several states how to install a group of alternative electors to falsely declare Trump the winner of the respective states in the last election.
Following his plea deal in Georgia, Chesebro is said to have testified to a grand jury in Nevada, where Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced that six people have been indicted as part of a fake elector plot in the state.
Chesebro also allegedly cooperated with investigators in Michigan, where Attorney General Dana Nessel charged 16 Republicans with felony offenses as part of a fake elector scheme last July.
Mayes revealed on Wednesday that 18 people have been charged with felony offenses including fraud, forgery and conspiracy in connection with the fake elector scheme in Arizona.
As well as Giuliani and Meadows, the names of five other defendants, including Trump lawyers John Eastman, Christina Bobb and Jenna Ellis, are redacted in the indictment. These defendants are identifiable from facts outlined in the document, or have issued statements condemning the charges against them.
Giuliani, Meadows, Ellis, Eastman, Trump and Chesebro were among the 19 defendants charged in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' 2020 election interference investigation in Georgia. Chesebro and Ellis both took plea deals, with Trump, Giuliani, Eastman and Meadows pleading not guilty to all charges against them.
The 11 names in the Arizona fake elector indictment include former Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward, state Sen. Anthony Kern, and Jim Lamon, who ran for the U.S. Senate in Arizona in 2022.
In a statement, Mayes said the 18 defendants and five unindicted coconspirators allegedly attempted to "undermine the will of Arizona's voters" during the 2020 presidential election.
"Arizona's election was free and fair. The people of Arizona elected President Biden, unwilling to accept this fact that defendants charged by the state grand jury, allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency," Mayes said.
"Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for and I was elected to uphold the law of this state."
Uncommon Knowledge
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About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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