Michigan AG executes search warrants against Google and X in ongoing 2020 fake voter investigation

CNN
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Google and X, formerly Twitter, recently provided hundreds of files to Michigan prosecutors for their 2020 election subversion investigation, fulfilling search warrants investigators obtained after CNN revealed secret social media accounts belonging to pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who played an important role. in the plot of false voters.

The previously unreported warrants gave prosecutors access to new Chesebro emails and his private Twitter direct messages. The warrants make clear that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is still gathering new information in her investigation, nine months after she charged the state’s fake voters with forgery and other crimes for signing certificates falsely claiming Donald Trump won. the state in 2020.

A key member of his team testified last week that the investigation is ongoing and that Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case, who is not expected to go to trial before the November election.

Michigan is among several states investigating fake voter schemes. Last week, Arizona prosecutors filed criminal charges against pro-Trump voters and allies of the former president who were involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

According to new documents provided to Michigan prosecutors, obtained by CNN, Chesebro unsuccessfully attempted to bring several controversial pro-Trump figures to Washington, D.C., to watch his “fake voter” strategy unfold on January 6, 2021.

He offered to pay for airfare and lodging at Trump’s luxury D.C. hotel for former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, as well as the founder of the conspiracy website Gateway Pundit, among others. It seems that no one accepted his offers.

These messages also show how Chesebro aggressively contacted conservative experts and right-wing figures after Trump lost the 2020 election, urging them to publicly promote his far-fetched theories about how to subvert the Electoral College process.

The search warrants for Google and X were executed in March, shortly after CNN reported that Chesebro had hidden some of its social media accounts from prosecutors during its cooperation session last year. Chesebro was not charged in Michigan and pleaded guilty in the Georgia election interference investigation.

CNN has reached out to Chesebro’s lawyers for comment.

The direct messages obtained by CNN chronicle how Chesebro, while advising the Trump campaign on the fake voter plot, also tried to garner friendly news coverage by tirelessly pitching himself to conservative radio hosts and pro-Trump pundits.

He shared what appeared to be unsolicited guidance to Gateway Pundit founder Jim Hoft, advising him on how to frame his site’s coverage of the Jan. 6 congressional certification process.

“It would be helpful to get the word out that if (then-Vice President Mike) Pence claimed the power to resolve disputes over electoral votes on January 6, he would simply be doing what (Thomas) Jefferson did,” Chesebro told Hoft in a message on December 27, 2020.

“Excellent!! Thank you,” replied Hoft, using the account @GatewayPundit.

Two days later, Chesebro told Hoft that he had reserved a block of rooms at the Trump International Hotel and that Hoft could stay there “for free” if he wanted.

Not long after that, Chesebro made similar offers to Clarke and his wife, as well as Wisconsin radio host Vicki McKenna and her husband, according to emails obtained by CNN.

“I’m happy to pay for the flights if that helps,” Chesebro told McKenna, according to the documents. “It’s really not a big deal; I’ve done really, really well financially over the last few years. And I would feel great if you could be at the center of the Trump universe!”

Hoft informed Chesebro that he had his own quarters in DC. An attorney for Hoft declined to comment for this story. McKenna did not respond to requests for comment.

When Chesebro met with Nessel investigators in December, they asked about her social media accounts. In addition to hiding his secret Twitter account, Chesebro told investigators that he did not use social media apps to send and receive private messages.

This denial is undermined by the materials X gave investigators, which contain more than 160 messages sent and more than 25 messages received between 2014 and 2021, most of them during the 2020 election fallout.

During the closed-door interview, an investigator asked Chesebro which social media apps he used where people “can direct and private message you,” according to a recording obtained by CNN.

Chesebro responded: “The only messaging apps I’ve used – like for messaging, right? I understand there is this feature – it’s iMessage.” He went on to say, “I know there’s direct messaging Twitter,” but he didn’t say he used Twitter for direct messaging.

Chesebro’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the discrepancy.

After the 2020 election, Chesebro also sent some Twitter direct messages to James Wigderson, a longtime Wisconsin politics writer who ran a conservative news site. Chesebro was trying to gain coverage for allegations that there were irregularities in the Wisconsin results, according to documents obtained by CNN.

“You can spare me these things. Thanks. Trump lost,” Wigderson told Chesebro, later adding, “I really don’t have time for conspiracy theories. Thank you for understanding.”

Portions of this exchange were previously reported by The New York Times.

Chesebro also privately contacted several other Wisconsin political experts and legal scholars, including some with whom he sparred in public Twitter posts. Most were ignored.

One of Chesebro’s targeted lawyers was Daniel Rodriguez, who attended Northwestern University law school with Chesebro and is now a professor there. On December 29, 2020, Chesebro sent a link to Rodriguez about a new lawsuit from the Trump campaign that sought to overturn the Wisconsin results. Rodriguez responded with “LOL.”

“I don’t remember that exchange exactly,” Rodriguez told CNN in an email, “but my best guess is that the ‘LOL’ was because this whole fake voter lawsuit thing was, and is, crazy.”

The Wisconsin litigation — like dozens of other Trump election lawsuits — failed in the courts.

This story has been updated with additional details.