CNN — Kenneth Chesebro, the right-wing attorney who helped devise the Trump campaign’s fake electors plot in 2020, concealed a secret Twitter account from Michigan prosecutors, hiding dozens of damning posts that undercut his statements to investigators about his role in the election subversion scheme, a CNN KFile investigation has found.

Chesebro denied using Twitter, now known as the platform X, or having any “alternate IDs” when directly asked by Michigan investigators last year during his cooperation session, according to recordings of his interview obtained by CNN.

But CNN linked Chesebro to the secret account based on numerous matching details — including biographical information regarding his work, family, travels and investments. The anonymous account, BadgerPundit, also showed a keen interest in the Electoral College process and lined up with Chesebro’s private activities at the time.

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    “Alternate slates of electors”? Fake, he saw the slate of fake electors. There are no alternate electors. I’m fucking sick of this pussyfoot language. Call these shit heads out. Make them hear it, read it, and squirm.

    • ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Fucking thank you. Calling it anything but “fake” or “fraudulent” serves only to normalize the lie that an “alternate list” is a codified idea. Imagine the place we’d be in if we had normalized the phrase “alternative facts” or whatever phrase gurgled out of that one shithead when talking about the “Bowling Green massacre” that she made up.

      Make them hear it, read it, and squirm.

      Looks like you have more faith than me that any one republican has the capacity for discomfort. Your patience is really admirable. I hope you continue to keep your cynicism in check, unlike me.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Look at this massive apparratus that enables this. An entire Institution of Oz, all for the sake of perception.

  • ganksy@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    If they can prove it, his plea deal, if he has one, will fold up like a lawn chair.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      9 months ago

      He has a plea deal in Georgia, but in this case he’s accused of lying to prosecutors in Michigan.

    • Heresy_generator@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      More likely he was trying to protect himself here; he’s been willing to talk about all those other lawyers Trump had and their crazy plans that he totally didn’t agree with or push*. His story has been that he was just innocently helping prepare a contingency plan in case Trump won in the courts and was totally not planning a coup; now there are tweets where he’s saying, [Trump doesn’t need the courts; he can just do a coup].

      *It was amusing the way things went down in Georgia: He filed for separation to try to get away from the crazies and present himself as a responsible lawyer doing responsible lawyer things while the crazies were off doing crimes and he got it! Yay! But, hilariously, then the monkey’s paw curled and Sidney “the Krazy Kraken” Powell also got separation and their cases got joined.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    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.

    Chesebro’s attorneys acknowledged in an interview with CNN that “there’s clearly a conflict” between some of his tweets and what he told Michigan prosecutors, and that some of the elector theories he embraced online were “inconsistent” with his subsequent legal advice to the Trump campaign.

    “Chesebro appears to have pursued a legally perilous path in his dealings with Michigan authorities,” said Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University, who reviewed the posts for CNN.

    But privately, as BadgerPundit on Twitter, Chesebro was familiar with the fake electors plot as early as September 2020, and defended the Trump campaign’s ability to pursue the plan just days after the election.

    Less than two days after polls closed on the 2020 presidential election, Chesebro, as BadgerPundit, began publicly tweeting the framework for the “alternate elector” strategy that the Trump campaign ended up pursuing.

    Speaking to Michigan investigators, Chesebro criticized the more radical plan put forth by conservative attorney John Eastman, which included having state legislatures choosing their own slates of electors for Pence to count on January 6.


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