The state-level criminal investigation into the 2020 election “fake electors” plot in Nevada has secured the cooperation of a key witness — Kenneth Chesebro, the lawyer who orchestrated the scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state.
Both CNN and The Washington Post report that Mr Chesebro has agreed to meet with investigators in the state in a bid to avoid prosecution there.
He pleaded guilty to charges relating to the plot in Georgia and as part of that plea deal has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in the sprawling racketeering case against former president Donald Trump and 14 other co-defendants.
Mr Chesebro also agreed to cooperate with any relevant cases in the future both inside and outside the state.
The fake elector plot was to put forward slates of alternate pro-Trump Electoral College voters in multiple states — Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Mexico — with Mr Chesebro spelling out in a series of memos what they should do to return Mr Trump to the White House and snatch the election from Mr Biden.
Mr Chesebro acknowledged in one of the memos that the strategy was “controversial” and even a conservative Supreme Court would likely reject it.
In Nevada, six Republicans signed false Electoral College votes in December 2020 for then-president Trump despite the state going for Mr Biden.
Several of the fake electors are still active in politics for the Republican Party causing internal tensions between those still loyal to Mr Trump, and those who believe there need to be repercussions for the attempt to subvert democracy.
CNN reports that the Nevada case could expand beyond the state in the same way as the Fulton County, Georgia probe led by District Attorney Fani Willis did.
Mr Chesebro has also been in contact with investigators in Arizona and is identified by some media outlets as one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the federal election interference case brought by the Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith.
Investigations are underway in Arizona and New Mexico, and more than a dozen individuals who acted as fake electors in Michigan were charged in September.
