Kenneth Chesebro’s Plea Deal in Georgia Could Increase Peril for Trump

Just before Christmas 2020, as President Donald J. Trump was running out of options to stave off losing the election, Kenneth Chesebro wrote an email to a group of other lawyers who were thinking of filing a last-ditch lawsuit to reverse Mr. Trump’s defeat.

The odds of winning the suit did not look good, Mr. Chesebro wrote, pegging them at only “1 percent.” But even though their efforts were unlikely to prevail in court, Mr. Chesebro suggested that Mr. Trump continue to push his baseless claims of fraud.

“The relevant analysis,” Mr. Chesebro argued, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times, “is political.”

On Friday, Mr. Chesebro pleaded guilty to a single felony count of conspiring to file false documents in Georgia and agreed to cooperate with the local prosecutors who have charged Mr. Trump and 17 others in a sprawling racketeering indictment accusing them of tampering with the election in the state.

Word of his cooperation deal came one day after Sidney Powell, another lawyer who sought to help Mr. Trump remain in power, reached a similar arrangement with the authorities. Last month, an Atlanta bail bondsman with a minor role in the alleged conspiracy also agreed to plead guilty.

“The three folks who’ve pled guilty so far have all apparently avoided jail time and I think that’s an unmistakable signal to other defendants deciding whether or not they want to plead guilty and cooperate,” said Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney and senior F.B.I. official.