Former prosecutor Timothy Heaphy claimed Kenneth Chesebro, Donald Trump’s ex-attorney who was indicted with him in the Georgia election interference case, gave Michigan investigators testimony that could play a part in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s probe.
Following Smith’s federal investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Smith charged Trump with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. Despite a lack of evidence, the former president claimed that the election was stolen due to massive voter fraud.
Trump maintains his innocence, pleading not guilty to all allegations and accusing Smith of a political vendetta against him.
The investigation focused on the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters violently protested the election results in a failed attempt to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory, as well as efforts to submit false slates of pro-Trump electors from swing states to the Electoral College.
Chesebro was accused in a separate election interference case led by Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, which centered on the phony elector scheme and Trump’s phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which he requested Raffensperger to locate enough ballots to tip the election in his favor. In the lawsuit, Trump has pled not guilty, maintaining his innocence.
Chesebro, on the other hand, pleaded guilty and is cooperating with authorities in Georgia and other states. CNN claimed on Thursday that tape from his testimony before Michigan investigators had been released, in which he explained the fraudulent elector plot.
During an appearance on CNN, Heaphy explained how Chesebro’s testimony in Michigan could help Smith’s inquiry.
“My guess is that Chesebro’s information, which is new—he asserted the Fifth Amendment privilege when we interviewed him, the Select Committee interviewed him—will factor into the special counsel’s investigation,” he was quoted as saying. “The phony elector plot is part of the evidence that the special counsel will present that bears directly on the president’s—former president’s—intention to disrupt the joint session.”
He observed that Chesebro was not accused in the federal case and is not known to have spoken with Smith at this time, but projected that he would eventually submit testimony ahead of the March trial.
“So whether or not he’s been interviewed at this point, my guess is that he will be and that he has information that will be useful to the special counsel,” he told reporters.
On Friday, Newsweek emailed the Trump campaign and Chesebro for a response.
Chesebro stated in the audio tapes how the campaign planned to deliver bogus Electoral College credentials from Michigan and Wisconsin, both of which Biden narrowly won, to D.C. before they got stopped in the mail on January 5.
“The general counsel of the Trump campaign is freaked out that [campaign official Mike] Roman reported that the Michigan votes are still in the sorting facility in Michigan, which doesn’t look like they’re going to get to [then-Vice President Mike] Pence in time,” he added. “So the general counsel of the campaign was alarmed, and was chartering—they didn’t have to charter a jet, but they did commercial.”
He further stated that the campaign had to “enlist the help of a U.S. senator” in order to get the ballots to Pence in time for certification. However, Pence ultimately declined to veto Biden’s Electoral College victory, infuriating Trump.
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