Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney associated with Trump during the 2020 election cycle, lost on Monday in an attempt to quash — essentially meaning invalidate — a subpoena he received for testimony in the ongoing criminal investigation by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis into pro-Trump election meddling.
Willis is specifically examining attempts after the 2020 presidential race to undercut the election outcome in Georgia, where Joe Biden won. Days before his appearance before the special grand jury working on the Willis investigation was scheduled, Chesebro filed a motion to quash the subpoena he received, but Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney denied Chesebro’s motion on Monday. Chesebro must continue moving through the process of the district attorney obtaining his testimony. The attorney cited privilege concerns in making an attempt to block the subpoena, but McBurney noted that there are significant areas of inquiry that attorney-client privilege wouldn’t cover.
“However, as the District Attorney has pointed out, there are also areas of interest to the special purpose grand jury that are not off-limits: Mr. Chesebro’s background and experience, his knowledge of both Georgia and federal election law, his communications with Republican party officials in Georgia following the 2020 general election, his interactions with the individuals in Georgia seeking to prepare a slate of “alternate” electors weeks after the final vote count showed former President Trump losing by over 10,000 votes in Georgia, etc.,” McBurney noted after acknowledging the privilege arguments. “Because these are legitimate, relevant, non-protected areas of investigation for the special purpose grand jury, quashal is improper.”
Separately, POLITICO recently noted it’s unclear whether Chesebro — who was involved in the scheme to assemble faked electoral votes for Trump — ever even held a formal position with the Trump campaign, although he claimed he did. Chesebro said in his challenge to the subpoena, which he filed last week, that he was “instructed” by the Trump campaign to “maintain all applicable privileges and confidentiality,” but it’s unclear whether there’s any hard evidence that such “instruction” was actually issued. McBurney said in his new order that Chesebro’s team and the district attorney’s office “should confer” to deal with any specific issues of privilege.
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election as Trump corruptly attempted to stay in power, Chesebro worked with Trump allies including John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani.
Chesebro sent Giuliani a detailed plan in December of 2020 that pushed for the President of the Senate to “firmly take the position that he, and he alone, is charged with the constitutional responsibility not just to open the [electoral] votes, but to count them—including making judgments about what to do if there are conflicting votes.” A federal judge concluded that Trump and Eastman likely, although not certainly, engaged in criminal activities amid their attempts to secure an unearned term for Trump, and the lengthy message from Chesebro was cited by the judge in making that conclusion. The message specifically proposes knowing violations of the Electoral Count Act, a piece of federal law (which Senators are now hoping to reform to make it clearer) that governs Congressional certification of the presidential election outcome. The message also pushed for potential steps including pressuring swing state officials to rerun their local presidential election process.
