Ken Chesebro Wants Nothing to Do With Sidney Powell — Especially in Court

Nikki McCann Ramirez
·3 min read
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Trump’s co-defendant, Ken Chesebro, does not, under any circumstances, want to be tried alongside Sidney Powell.

Both Chesebro and Powell were indicted earlier this month in a sweeping Georgia RICO case that charged Donald Trump and 18 of his allies with offenses related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.

Chesebro and Powell, both attorneys who assisted the former president in matters related to the 2020 election, demanded their cases be split off from their other co-defendants and quickly taken to trial. A judge granted Chesebro’s request last week and scheduled proceedings to begin on Oct. 23.

On Monday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis requested that Powell and any other defendant wishing for a speedy trial be tried alongside Chesebro. In Willis’ view, the defendants should be tried jointly because they all, to varying degrees, participated in a racketeering scheme and, according to her indictment, “knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”

Chesebro is less than enthused at the prospect.

In a Friday filing, Chesebro’s attorneys “respectfully” requested the court “sever his trial from defendant Sidney Powell.”

The filing, reviewed by Rolling Stone, argues that Powell’s actions are both separate and unrelated to the actions taken by Chesebro in the aftermath of the election. In an ordered list, attorneys attempted to detail how little contact the pair have had.

  1. Mr. Chesebro has never physically met Sidney Powell;

  2. Mr. Chesebro has never sent an email to Ms. Powell;

  3. Mr. Chesebro has never received an email from Ms. Powell;

  4. Mr. Chesebro has never called Ms. Powell;

  5. Mr. Chesebro has never received a phone call from Ms. Powell;

  6. Mr. Chesebro has never texted Ms. Powell;

  7. Mr. Chesebro has never received a text message from Ms. Powell; and

  8. Mr. Chesebro has never communicated with Ms. Powell through any social media or telecommunications application.

The filing further argues that there is “a danger that evidence incriminating one defendant will be considered against a co-defendant, or if the strength of the evidence against one defendant will engulf the co-defendant(s) with a spillover effect.”

“Simply put, if Mr. Chesebro and Ms. Powell are forced to be tried together, the State will attempt to lump them together in an attempt to convict Mr. Chesebro via a ‘conspiracy’ or ‘RICO’ theory based on the conduct of the co-defendant which has no relation to anything for which he stands accused,” the filing adds.

The scramble among Trump’s co-defendants to separate themselves from the fray points to a larger pattern of distrust amongst the alleged conspirators.

As previously reported by Rolling Stone, many of Trump’s former attorneys, some of whom face possible indictments in a federal election interference case in which Trump has already been charged, have begun pointing the finger at one another behind the scenes.

Sources previously told Rolling Stone that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office is looking to pursue charges against some of the (as of now) unindicted co-conspirators mentioned in their federal case. Several of those names have already begun throwing dirt at Powell, seeing the woman whose election conspiracies Trump himself dubbed “crazy”  as a convenient scapegoat.

Attorneys for Rudy Giuliani, an indicted co-defendant in Georgia and an  unindicted co-conspirator in Smith’s case, previously told CNN that one “can’t attach Rudy Giuliani to Sidney Powell’s crackpot idea.”

With Powell already becoming a public punching bag for his co-defendants, it’s no wonder Chesebro wants her nowhere near his own case.

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