Trump Lawyer Accused of Being ‘Mastermind Behind’ 2020 Fake Electors Scheme Hit With Ethics Complaint in New York

Chung Sung-Jun, Getty

Several dozen lawyers and former government officials filed an ethics complaint under the group, Lawyers Defending American Democracy, asking for the New York Supreme Court to investigate Kenneth Chesebro, who they claim was the “mastermind behind” then-President Donald Trump’s scheme to use “fake electors” to stay in office.

The New York Times’s Charlie Savage reported on the filing on Wednesday and noted that while Rudy Giuliani, who faces a similar investigation, and John Eastman are the more well-known conspirators in Trump’s plots to retain power, Chesebro was just as, if not more so, influential in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Savage notes that “documents show that Mr. Chesebro played a central part in developing the idea of having Trump supporters pretend to be electors from states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr., then claiming that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to cite the purported existence of rival slates to delay counting or to discard real Electoral College votes for Mr. Biden on Jan. 6, 2021.”

The complaint sent to the Attorney Grievance Committee of Supreme Court of the State of New York reads:

Mr. Chesebro, however, is the apparent mastermind behind key aspects of the fake elector ploy, including the legal theory that the Vice President had the sole authority to determine the outcome of the election. Mr. Eastman and Mr. Giuliani are already subject to ethics investigations and disciplinary proceedings for their roles in the endeavor to overturn the election.

“It is time for Mr. Chesebro to be subject to scrutiny comparable to his better-known collaborators,” concludes the complain which does not outright call for Chesebro to be disbarred, but asks for a fair and transparent investigation.

The complaint additionally details accusations of Chesebro’s activities, claiming he personally acted to gather “fake electors.”

“Mr. Chesebro conceived and participated in planning and promoting the creation of slates of fake electors from multiple states to interfere with the count of electoral votes on January 6, 2021,” argues the complaint, adding:

Mr. Chesebro knew that the scheme to submit fake elector slates and to propose the Vice President as the sole arbiter of the outcome had no basis in fact or law