In a pair of legal filings submitted Friday, attorney Kenneth Chesebro claimed the case levied against him by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be dismissed based on First Amendment protections, and that she has failed to prove the racketeering charges against him. Chesebro, an attorney who assisted with former President Donald Trump’s effort to contest the 2020 election, requested Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee hold a hearing for arguments related to the latest filings.
The pair of filings were submitted by Chesebro’s attorneys on Friday afternoon, which The Messenger notes is the final day for parties to file written responses, and follow McAfee’s decision to toss a separate motion to dismiss the indictment earlier that morning.
In her August indictment, Willis accused Chesebro (pictured above) of leading an effort to create fake electoral college electors to aid Trump, though he and the other indicted Republicans maintain the electors were only considered Republican alternative electors and did not falsely represent themselves as public officials.
Chesebro crafted memos and legal opinions for the Trump campaign. In his filing asking for the case to be tossed on First Amendment grounds, Chesebro’s attorneys wrote that the lawyer’s “speech was his own opinion or analysis; it was thus not fictitious or purported to have been made by someone else.”
Because Chesebro was offering legal advice and did not gather with one or more people to conspire to break the law before doing so, Chesebro’s lawyers said their client’s speech was protected by the First Amendment and not part of a criminal conspiracy.
In the second filing submitted Friday, Chesebro’s lawyers argued Willis failed to establish a pattern of racketeering, specifically because prosecutors do not allege a monetary gain for Chesebro, and do not adequately establish a monetary gain for Trump.
Prosecutors claim monetary harm is not required under Georgia’s Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, but Chesebro’s defense attorneys countered that Willis offered no reason for a case to be prosecuted under RICO law without establishing “pecuniary gain or economic or physical harm.”
Jury selection for the trial against Chesebro and co-defendant Sidney Powell is slated to begin on October 20, with the trial to follow on October 23. The two had a joint case against them severed from the greater indictment against Trump and the other defendants after they invoked their right to a speedy trial, which special prosecutor Nathan Wade and Willis had previously argued against.
Chesebro’s previous attempt to have the case quashed involved Willis’ appointment of Wade to oversee the case, with lawyers for Chesebro claiming the defense attorney went outside the bounds of Georgia law. McAfee tossed that motion on Friday morning.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
