Kenneth Chesebro, a Donald Trump ally and the alleged mastermind of the scheme to subvert the results of the 2020 election through the use of fake electors, was at the US Capitol on January 6, accompanying conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Video and photos taken on the grounds of the Capitol on the day Trump loyalists stormed the building, reviewed and reported on first by CNN, clearly show the attorney, now at the heart of the criminal case concerning the plot to overturn the election, wearing a red Trump 2020 hat and filming Jones with his phone.
Mr Chesebro is credited as the alleged architect of the plan to upset the Electoral College process as it played out in Congress that day, with the use of fake Republican electors across multiple key states.
CNN reports that when he was asked by the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot about his whereabouts in the first week of January 2021, Mr Chesebro invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to not self-incriminate.
The footage reviewed by the network now clearly places the attorney in a restricted area outside the Capitol with bombastic conspiracy theorist Jones before the riotous mob stormed the building.
Neither Jones nor Mr Chesebro entered the building that day nor did they engage in violence.
Jones had encouraged his followers to converge on Washington DC that day, echoing then-president Donald Trump’s tweet calling for his supporters to protest the result of the 2020 election.
Mr Chesebro is one of the unindicted co-conspirators in Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment of the former president on charges of attempting to overturn the election.
He is described in the indictment 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”.
Mr Chesebro is also one of the 19 people, including Mr Trump, to have been indicted by District Attorney Fani Willis in Fulton County, Georgia, as part of an alleged criminal conspiracy to alter the outcome of the election in the state in favour of then-president Trump, who lost.
He is the only member of Mr Trump’s legal team now known to have been on the Capitol grounds that day. CNN confirmed his identity through interviews with acquaintances.
Footage used to place him at the Capitol with Jones was culled from a number of sources including social media, Infowars, and Jones’s bodyguard’s body camera.
They were together for approximately an hour from 1.40pm onwards ending up halfway up the steps of the Capitol before they left. Shortly afterwards, the violent mob breached the doors of the building.
It is not clear why Mr Chesebro was following Jones around on the day, but it is significant in that it shows his activities went beyond his purported role as a legal adviser to the president.
Mr Chesebro declined a request by CNN to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
