Kenneth Chesebro, a far-right attorney who helped Donald Trump’s defense in Michigan and was charged in the Georgia RICO case, had anonymous Twitter account that he hid from Michigan prosecutors – always a bad idea.
The tweets reveal some of his more specific statements that were in direct contradiction to his statements to investigators who are concerned about his role in the fake electors conspiracy in Michigan.
Chesebro initially denied having a Twitter (“X”) account or any other hidden social media identities, but Michigan investigators have discovered an account he used under a pseudonym.
A CNN investigation found the account in question, which featured personal details that could only have come from Chesebro himself. The account described Chesebro in all but name, with descriptions of his hobbies and interests so specific that CNN — not the FBI or Michigan State Police — were able to find it.
Chesebro’s alternate online ID – “Badger Pundit” – intensely focused on the Electoral College, displaying a fixation on the mechanics of how the electoral system actually worked.
CNN’s report states that the tweets reveal that Chesebro had a far more intense and specific plan to overturn the election results than he had told investigators. CNN’s exclusive states:
“Chesebro claimed to investigators he saw the alternate slates of Republican electors only as a contingency plan to have ready in case the Trump campaign won any of its more than 60 lawsuits challenging the election results — which it didn’t. He also told Michigan investigators that in his conversations with the Trump campaign, he made clear that ‘state legislatures have no power to override the courts.’”
Within two days of election day, “Badger Pundit” (Chesebro) made it clear that he strongly believed that citizens’ votes were subject to the legislature’s approval and were not binding.
Chesebro’s theory was that state legislatures had the duty or choice to vote to send electors however they wanted under a poorly written phrase in the 12th Amendment and skipping 200 years of precedent, “the alternate electors” theory.
Chesebro strongly lobbied to have the legislatures in various red legislatures (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona) vote to send GOP electors and that Vice President Mike Pence could choose to either discard the alternate electors or count them. Either way, Donald Trump would have won the election based on state legislature breakdowns.
Of course, the rationale behind the state legislatures’ votes would be that the election in their own state, likely with a state governor and secretary of state who were Republicans, had their vote…rigged.
From an archived Chesebro tweet:
“You don’t get the big picture. Trump doesn’t have to get courts to declare him the winner of the vote. He just needs to convince Republican legislatures that the election was systematically rigged, but it’s impossible to run it again, so they should appoint electors instead.”
Yes, the theory holds true, but only if one is willing to be arrested and the American electorate simply forgets 200 years of precedent.
In brutal honesty, I am not sure how what Chesebro did could be considered illegal without having sent the alternates to the legislatures themselves and making the argument in an official forum. I do not believe it ever got that far.
There are others who clearly did act illegally and conspired to do so – Trump’s phone call pressuring Brad Raffensperger is one.
But Chesebro? I have a bit of trouble with the people who simply had a legal theory and began to organize because I’m not sure when it crossed the line between just a legal theory and criminality.
Regardless, false statements and concealing evidence are crimes, and now Chesebro may be subject to more stringent penalties than those handed to him by Judge McAfee in Georgia.
Amazing, but he likely wouldn’t have faced more serious charges than those he faced already.
Bad idea, “bro.”
This report is based on original reporting by , , , and of CNN News.
Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author
