Ex-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro's law license suspended in New York

Ex-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who helped devise the Trump campaign’s alternate electors strategy in 2020, has been suspended from practicing law in New York following his conviction for a "serious crime."

A panel of judges on the Appellate Division — New York’s midlevel appeals court — ruled Thursday that Chesebro is barred from practicing law in the state, "effective immediately," following his guilty plea in Georgia's 2020 election interference case against former President Trump and his allies.

Chesebro admitted to one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents, narrowly avoiding becoming the first of dozens of defendants to go to trial over his alleged efforts to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election in the state.

He was initially accused of seven felony counts, including a state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charge. Those charges mainly related to his efforts to organize slates of pro-Trump electors, who ultimately met in seven states won by President Biden.

"Upon an attorney's conviction for a felony — that being either a felony offense committed in New York or a crime committed outside of New York that would constitute a felony if committed in this state — the attorney ceases to be competent to practice law," the panel wrote.

Chesebro helped craft the so-called fake electors scheme pushing to certify slates of Trump-supporting electors in battleground states instead of the true electoral votes cast for Biden. Fake electors allegedly convened in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada and Wisconsin, claiming without basis that they were “duly elected” electors from their states.

The plan relied on former Vice President Mike Pence to certify the pro-Trump electoral votes, but on Jan. 6, 2021 — the day of the election certification — he declined to go along with the plan. A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol later that day in protest of the election results and Pence’s refusal to overturn them.

After pleading guilty in Georgia, Chesebro reportedly sat for interviews in Arizona and Nevada, where charges were eventually filed against several Republicans, including top Trump allies. He also faces charges in Wisconsin over the plot.