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By Thomas Kika
Weekend Staff Writer
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The recent plea deal taken by ex-Trump adviser Kenneth Chesebro in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation could result in even deeper legal woes for the cases of other co-conspirators, like Rudy Giuliani, according to former U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissmann on Saturday.
Chesebro is a former attorney for Donald Trump alleged to have taken part in the scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. On Friday, Chesebro became the latest co-conspirator named in the Fulton County indictment to accept a plea deal, following one from Sidney Powell, a lawyer who was heavily involved in Trump's efforts to contest the election, and Scott Hall, an Atlanta-based bail bondsman who participated in the Georgia scheme. Trump, meanwhile, has maintained his innocence in the case.
As part of this deal, Chesebro agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to file false documents, pay a $5,000 fine, write a letter of apology to the voters of Georgia, and serve five years of probation. Most notably, he has also agreed to testify truthfully about the case in upcoming trials, a move that legal experts have said could be devastating for Trump's defense.
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During a Saturday appearance on MSNBC, Weissmann was asked by host Ali Velshi about the potential ramifications of Chesebro's plea deal. The former prosecutor argued that, while he may not have direct information to share regarding Trump's involvement, he will most likely be able to give damaging testimony against other co-conspirators, like Giuliani and lawyer John Eastman.
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"He will have evidence with respect to co-conspirators," Weissmann, who served as lead prosecutor in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump's 2016 campaign and Russian election interference, explained. "He may not have direct evidence against Donald Trump, but he has direct evidence against Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman. If I am one of the two of them, this is not a good day, because they are both reported to be unindicted co-conspirators in the federal case [regarding Trump's efforts to subvert the election], they're indicted conspirators in the Georgia case, and there now is someone with direct evidence who can testify against them."
He continued: "What he has pled to, unlike what Sidney Powell pled to, is something that is core to the January 6 scheme. He has now admitted as part of his guilty plea that he was part of a scheme to defraud the voters of Georgia, to overturn their votes in the presidential election."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's office via email for comment.
In a prior statement to Newsweek, former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi agreed that Chesebro's deal was a bad sign for the likes of Trump and Giuliani. He also noted that, as the alleged architect of the "fake electors" scheme, he has likely told investigators that those involved in the plan knew it was fraudulent from the start.
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