 |
| Alex Jone |
On January 6, 2021, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones led his army of supporters on a march to the US Capitol. A quiet middle-aged man wearing a red "Trump 2020" cap conspicuously joined them.
As the bombastic TV personality ascended to the restricted part of the Capitol grounds, where crowds of then-President Donald Trump's supporters finally broke in, videos and photos reviewed by CNN show the man dutifully documenting Jones with his phone.
While the man's actions outside the Capitol that day have received little attention, recent developments have brought his claimed ties to a scheme to rig the 2020 election into stark relief: He is lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who is accused of being the mastermind behind a plot to rig the 2020 Electoral College results.GOP voters across several states.
Chesebro invoked the Fifth Amendment when asked by the House Select Committee where he was on January 6 and during the first week of January 2021. However, a CNN investigation has revealed that he was absent from the Capitol when his claimed scheme to keep Trump in office collapsed inside of it.
There is no evidence that Chesebro broke into the Capitol or was violent. On January 6, 2021, Jones did not enter the Capitol or engage in violence, but the day before he had issued a warning of an impending conflict and urged his supporters to gather there.
Chesebro is the sole member of Trump's legal team who is now known to be an unindicted co-conspirator in his most recent federal indictment.have been on January 6 on the grounds of the Capitol.
Chesebro was identified by CNN as being at the demonstration using publicly accessible databases of images and videos from that day. Interviews with his friends also proved that he was who he claimed to be. In response to CNN's requests for comment, Chesebro declined, citing ongoing litigation.
On January 6, it was unclear why Chesebro was trailing Jones.
"Even if Chesebro is simply a devoted Infowars fan, I think that would further illustrate how thin the line was in that time, to the extent that it meaningfully existed at all, between the serious, credentialed people who sought to undercut election results and the extremist figures who sought to wreak havoc," said Jared Holt, a specialist at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue which looks into extremism, hate, and disinformation.
The extent of Chesebro's participation in until 2022The alleged scheme to rig the 2020 presidential election was not well known. The Harvard-educated lawyer has now been charged in Fulton County, Georgia, along with Trump and 17 other people. Prosecutors claim that they conspired illegally to influence Georgia's election results in Trump's favor.
Chesebro took an unconventional route to enter Trump's orbit. He was formerly a research assistant for the renowned liberal constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, a Harvard professor. According to reports, Chesebro claimed to have made a tidy sum through bitcoin and that by 2020, he had contributed thousands to Republican politicians.
He started advising Trump campaign attorney Jim Troupis in November 2020 about the possibility of using phony electors in Wisconsin, which was first revealed by the New York Times.
Chesebro subsequently drafted a number of papers outlining strategies for having phony Trump electors in states won by Biden accepted "by a court, the state legislature, or Congress."
In an email discussion from December 2020 between Chesebro and John Eastman, another mastermind behind the phony electors' scheme,Chesebro suggested that "chaos" on January 6 could drive Supreme Court judges to intervene before the count could take place, as was discovered by the House select committee looking into January 6. "Odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable," he said, "if the justices start to fear that there will be 'wild' chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way."
Chesebro was named by CNN as co-conspirator 5 in the most recent federal charge against Trump. Prosecutors described Chesebro as an attorney "who assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding."
on Capitol Hill
Photos and videos from January 6 depict Chesebro spending an hour or more with Jones, beginning close to Capitol at about 1:40 p.m. Chesebro followed Jones and his crew to the Capitol while holding his phone out to what appeared to be a recording of Jones.
Deleted video clips from the right-wing social media platform Parler, images from Twitter, clips from Infowars, footage from Jones' own bodyguard's body camera that had previously been made public by Infowars, and video compiled by amateur researchers who followed Jones' movements were all used by CNN to recreate Chesebro's movements.
A federal prosecution against Owen Shroyer, another Infowars presenter, who was with Jones in those places, is based on videos reviewed by CNN showing Chesebro and Jones in two locations of the restricted area surrounding the Capitol.concurrently with Chesebro.
Shroyer was charged with four misdemeanors despite having previously agreed to a deferred prosecution agreement in another case that forbade him from becoming disorderly on the Capitol grounds. Later, Shroyer entered a guilty plea to one misdemeanor count of entering the prohibited area and remained there.
According to CNN, Chesebro's presence on the grounds of the Capitol might be used as evidence by prosecutors, according to New York University law professor Ryan Goodman, who once worked as the special counsel to the general counsel at the Department of Defense.
"This evidence could be cited by prosecutors as additional evidence that Chesebro was not acting as a bona fide legal entity, regardless of Chesebro's potential criminal liability for being in the restricted areas of Capitol grounds,"advisor, but was instead a campaigner who supported efforts to annul the election, according to Goodman. It disproves any arguments Chesebro might make that he was just acting in the capacity of a client-facing attorney.
On camera, Chesebro can be seen recording Jones as he delivers an impromptu speech to supporters on the West Lawn of the Capitol grounds, pleading with them not to engage in violence against law enforcement and to move to the other side of the building where they have a permission. The West side of the Capitol is invaded as Alex Jones and his group depart.
Chesebro follows Jones and his group to the opposite side of the Capitol, where he briefly pretends to show one of them something on his phone.One tape reveals the arrival of the security personnel at around 2:09. Later, the gang descends the Capitol Building's steps after climbing halfway up, including Chesebro.
A mob aiming to break through the East side of the Capitol's doors would try to do so shortly after they depart.
Nearly three o'clock finds Chesebro following the party as it leaves the Capitol grounds.
Chesebro is afterwards spotted strolling by the Peace Monument in front of the Capitol.
When questioned if he had been in Washington, DC in January 2021 prior to the certification of the results, Chesebro invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination in a deposition with the January 6th Committee in October 2022. An email was acquiredby the Committee, Chesebro is heard stating that he will be staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, from January 3 through January 8.
In a video that CNN analyzed, Chesebro can be seen visiting Freedom Plaza on January 5 the day before a demonstration that also featured speeches from Jones and Shroyer.
CORRECTION: The spelling of Laurence Tribe's name has been changed in this article.
Post a Comment