A Georgia judge has rejected former Trump campaign campaign lawyer Kenneth Chesebro’s push to invalidate his guilty plea in the Fulton County election interference case.
Chesebro was one of 19 defendants charged in the August 2023 indictment accusing former President Trump and others of trying to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.
Chesebro pleaded guilty in October 2023 to a conspiracy to file false documents charge. He was sentenced under Georgia’s First Offender Act, which allows the charge to drop off his record if he successfully completes probation with no violations.
Earlier this month, Chesebro’s attorney asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to throw out the plea after he dismissed the charge Chesebro pleaded guilty. His attorneys argued the plea should be thrown out because it violates his rights to due process.
But McAfee dismissed the motion calling it, “procedurally defective in more ways than one.” He noted that Chesebro “has already submitted a plea in response to this indictment — one of guilt.”
He also said that Chesebro’s motion was not a “valid motion in arrest of judgment” — Chesebro was calling on McAfee to stop the judgment because of a defect. McAfee pointed out that under the First Offender Act, Chesebro had pleaded guilty before “an adjudication of guilt” and “without entering a judgment of guilt.” So, McAfee reasoned in the ruling, “No final judgment occurs ….Therefore, there can be no arrest of judgment here.”
The indictment accused Chesbro of proposing, in a memo to Trump allies, “a bold, controversial strategy” to overturn the election: appoint alternate electors loyal to Trump in several states.
This proposal and at least one other memo he penned were included in the Georgia indictment as overt acts “in furtherance of the conspiracy.” The seven original counts against him stemmed from the plan to submit a slate of fake electors from Georgia.
The Fulton County election interference case against the president-elect is on hold after the Georgia Court of Appeals temporarily halted the proceedings in June. The appeals court is reviewing a trial judge’s ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting the case if special prosecutor Nathan Wade resigned. Trump and several of his co-defendants sought to remove Willis from the case after it was revealed she had a romantic relationship with Wade. Trump and others accused Willis of improperly benefiting from the relationship, an allegation she denies.