A lawyer and author known for his critiques of the Trump administration told CNN on Friday that lawyer Ken Chesebro, who signed a plea agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, would likely help former President Donald Trump if called to testify in Georgia.
Elie Honig, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney for the Southern District of New York, called Chesebro (pictured above) a “mixed bag” who may not help Willis prove her case.
Honig explained, “mixed bags aren’t great when you’re a prosecutor and you bear the burden of proving your case not by 51 percent but beyond a reasonable doubt to a unanimous jury.” He noted recently leaked audio suggesting Chesebro is abiding by his plea agreement and helping prosecutors, but also that Chesebro continues to maintain his plan to create alternate electors in order to preserve Trump’s legal challenges to the 2020 election results was legal.
CNN recently published a trove of recordings and emails from Chesebro’s time contesting the 2020 election results, and from his interactions with Michigan investigators, after he entered into a plea agreement with Willis in Georgia. The outlet revealed that “Chesebro has maintained – then, and now – that the plan was a lawful move to preserve Trump’s legal rights” to challenge the election results.
Honig told CNN host Erica Hill this means “Chesebro will never take the stand,” either in Willis’ case in Georgia or in the federal case assigned to special prosecutor Jack Smith.
“If he says that, and that apparently is his view, he’s poison to prosecutors,” Honig explained, adding that “anyone who think she will be the next John Dean or the smoking gun witness, absolutely not. Mark my words, no prosecutor will call him to the stand.”
The lawyer made similar remarks in a post to X, formerly Twitter. Honig wrote that Chesebro’s position that the alternate electors strategy was legal means “he’s not a viable prosecution witness.” Honig said that Chesebro could be “[u]seful for investigation and leads but not viable on the stand.”
Good catch. This must have something to do with it:
“Chesebro has maintained – then, and now – that the plan was a lawful move to preserve Trump's legal rights”
Meaning he’s not a viable prosecution witness. Useful for investigation and leads but not viable on the stand.
— Elie Honig (@eliehonig) December 29, 2023
Another CNN legal panelist, Norm Eisen, seemed to share Honig’s view during a Thursday appearance. In a discussion about why Smith has reportedly not responded to an overture from Chesebro’s attorneys, Eisen claimed Smith likely “has questions about Chesebro’s candor, perhaps, and he may not think he’s a valuable witness.”
Chesebro will serve no time in prison or jail as part of his Georgia plea deal. Instead, he wrote a one-sentence apology to Georgia, agreeing to pay a $5,000 fine and serve 100 hours of community service.
Honig previously criticized Willis’ indictments of Trump and those who helped him challenge the 2020 election, calling them “unnecessary” and “partisan.” He also suggested Willis’ case against Trump was largely duplicative of Smith’s.
According to Honig, Willis “has politicized her case,” causing it to “lend fuel to Trump’s claims” that the criminal indictments he faces are part of “a Democratic Party pile on.”
– – –
Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
