On Visibility and [dis]Covering Kenneth Chesebro
Yesterday, CNN reported that Kenneth Chesebro, identified as co-conspirator 5 in Trump’s DC indictment and charged in the Georgia one, in both indictments for actions limited to the fake electors scheme, trailed Alex Jones while he was present at the Capitol on January 6, apparently recording Jones’ actions and words for most of the time he’s at the Capitol.
CNN cites Ryan Goodman — who has steadfastly refused to look closely at much of the crime scene video evidence (much less credit the investigators who have meticulously catalogued it) — making a nonsense legal argument about the significance of Chesebro’s actions, one that clings to a cognitive distance between the white collar planning, to which he assigns Chesebro, and the blue collar execution of the attack).
Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University who previously served as the special counsel to the general counsel at the Department of Defense, told CNN that Chesebro’s presence on the Capitol grounds could be cited by prosecutors.
“Regardless of Chesebro’s potential criminal liability for being in the restricted areas of Capitol grounds, this evidence could be cited by prosecutors as further proof that Chesebro was not operating as a bona fide legal advisor but rather was an activist aligned in the cause to overturn the election,” Goodman said. “It undercuts defenses Chesebro might mount that he was functioning only in the role of providing legal advice for clients.”
The NYT version of the same story makes an equally nonsensical observation about what it means, claiming that this is the first evidence that “different tentacles of the efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power [] overlapped.”
Until now, there appeared to be different tentacles of the efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power that had not overlapped. But Mr. Chesebro hinted at those connections in an email exchange with John Eastman, another lawyer who was instrumental in the plan to pressure Mr. Pence with the fake elector scheme.
In late December 2020, the two lawyers discussed how to get a case before the Supreme Court. Mr. Chesebro told Mr. Eastman as they discussed filing a legal action that in terms of the highest court, the “odds of action before Jan. 6 will become more favorable if the justices start to fear that there will be ‘wild’ chaos on Jan. 6 unless they rule by then, either way.”
The pressure on state legislators brought to bear by Stop the Steal, ginned up at rallies headlined by Jones and Alexander, has always been a necessary component of the fake electors plan. The Georgians charged in the Trump side of the fake elector charges in the Georgia indictment, Robert Cheeley and Scott Hall, were also coordinating with the people pressuring Ruby Freeman. The political violence was not an afterthought, it was part of the plan.
Indeed, Thomas Joscelyn, a key author of the January 6 Report, noted that this overlap is in no way new and reminded that Jones and Owen Shroyer were in contact with the Proud Boys who are awaiting sentencing on their sedition conviction.
There is no firm dividing line between those orchestrating the political conspiracy to overturn the election and the extremists who led the attack on the Capitol.
He cited back to the passage of the report describing that Jones’ entourage was in direct contact, in real time, with the Proud Boys, even as they kicked off the riot.
Other, more prominent members of the Proud Boys appear to have been in contact with Jones and Shroyer about the events of January 6th and on that day. Records for Enrique Tarrio’s phone show that while the attack on the Capitol was ongoing, he texted with Jones three times and Shroyer five times.124 Ethan Nordean’s phone records reflect that he exchanged 23 text messages with Shroyer between January 4th and 5th, and that he had one call with him on each of those days.125 Records of Joseph Biggs’s communications show that he texted with Shroyer eight times on January 4th and called him at approximately 11:15 a.m. on January 6th, while Biggs and his fellow Proud Boys were marching at and around the Capitol.126
Those ties have remained close. Indeed, Jones and Shroyer — who were asked to lead Trump’s mob to the Capitol by someone in Trump’s immediate vicinity — have shared a lawyer, Norm Pattis, with former InfoWars employee and seditionist Joe Biggs for over a year; Pattis has also even taken over the defense of Zach Rehl.
But the limited visibility J6C had on that key node, the Jones entourage (largely because of their obstruction), ultimately prevented it from connecting all the dots and indeed the full extent of those dots remains obscure.
Even before you add Chesebro to the equation, in that entourage you had Jones who understood he was sent to lead the mob by Trump himself (J6C concludes it must have been conveyed through Caroline Wren, though for reasons I included in this post, that’s not entirely convincing). You had Shroyer, who shared that understanding, and who was coordinating with those launching the attack. And in addition to his frequent updates from Wren and coordination with Garrett Ziegler (now a central player in the Hunter Biden information operation led by Rudy Giuliani), Ali Alexander was also coordinating closely with Paul Gosar’s office — the guy who’d kick off the challenges. And all of them have exceptionally close ties to Roger Stone, including membership in the Friends of Stone list.
And, as CapitolHunters reminded in response to this coverage — and backed with a new researcher-compiled video of Jones’ movements that day — Jones played an absolutely central role in the success of the attack, first by bringing reinforcements to those leading the attack, and then, once he got there, by leading a huge chunk of those mobsters to the East side of the Capitol, where they’d serve a crucial role in a second, pincer attack on the building.
The convergence of first Jones and then key members of two militias on the East doors is the easiest place to see that the attack on the Capitol wasn’t random, but — at least in key movements — was fairly well executed. That convergence — and collection of evidence showing the import of Jones’ actions, for which people have already done time — has been an investigative focus from the start.
And Chesebro was there, capturing Jones’ actions.
Jones is a blowhorn-wielding asshole. But he commands almost the same kind of rabid loyalty as Trump does (Alexander estimated that a third of the attendees that day were Jones’ people). And via whatever means (the new Jones compilation video makes me wonder about potential uneven understanding of the events of the day, between Jones, Alexander, and Jones’ handlers) Jones played a central role in events of the day.
That entourage was a bunch of men checking in with at least Wren and possibly Ziegler, with Gosar’s office, and with the Proud Boys as they launched the attack on the Capitol. That entourage led a mob from the Ellipse, and then wittingly or not, deployed the mob where they would be the most effective, right there on the East steps before a second major breach would occur.
That’s the background one should bring to the images showing Chesebro, someone always associated with the plotting in the Willard, filming Jones as that entourage moved around the Capitol.
It’s not clear who sent him or why. NYT quotes a Jones lawyer — probably the same lawyer that Jones, Shroyer, Biggs, and Rehl share, Norm Pattis — disclaiming any knowledge of why Chesebro was shadowing Jones that day (though, given Jones’ paranoia and Shroyer’s pending sentencing, I’d find the denial more credible if Jones were squawking about being spied on by the Deep State).
It remains unclear why Mr. Chesebro was with Mr. Jones’s group outside the Capitol or how he came to be with them. A lawyer for Mr. Jones said that Mr. Jones was unaware that Mr. Chesebro had been following his entourage that day.
Plus, at one point, Chesebro seems to share something on his phone with a member of Jones’ security.
It is clear that Chesebro is not participating in the riot. Chesebro never indulges in the kind of fan worship of Jones as everyone else following him around does. Nor does he ever get distracted by the far more significant spectacle happening just yards away. He appears to be, at a minimum, monitoring Jones (though CapitolHunters pointed to some mannerisms that could be the kind of signaling as other things seen in the crime scene footage). And when Jones leaves, Chesebro follows. Chesebro continues to monitor — and film — as Jones seeds a conspiracy theory about the attack being launched by provocateurs on his way out (Michael Coudrey is a key Alexander associate, another member of the entourage).
We have seen that members of both the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers monitored the proceedings of the attack remotely, with Proud Boy leaders — including Tarrio and Bertino — chiming into the command and control from afar. It may be that’s what we’re seeing here.
After thirty months of hypervisibility, it’s easy to forget that there were actually pockets of the attack (inside offices without surveillance cameras and under the scaffolding are two of them) that could only be rendered visible by the cameras of others onsite, making their own recording. There are parts of Jones’ movement — which his own entourage recorded with a GoPro and at least one phone — that he subsequently edited.
The actions of Ken Chesebro suggest that someone wanted to make sure Jones’ movements at the Capitol would be visible, possibly to people monitoring the attack remotely, perhaps even in real time. Indeed, given that we’ve never seen this footage published on Parler, it suggests someone wanted a record of Jones’ real-time movement for private consumption.
The two indictments implicating Ken Chesebro have brought new visibility to him, and his actions. The discovery of Chesebro monitoring Jones’ activities during the attack have made aspects of the coordination behind this attack visible to TV lawyers for the first time. But amid all that newfound visibility, it’s worth remembering that some people knew to — and did — monitor all this in real time.
Update: I may have overstated when I claimed that Chesebro hadn’t cheered Jones. At the very beginning of this clip, Chesebro (in the far left of the frame) yells out, “Alex Jones” with the rest inaudible to me.
And that’s Ali Alexander right in there with them…
Seems this thing is so large and many-tentacled that an ordinary reporter, or a law professor, who cannot devote most of their time keeping track of everything (and who has not done that for the last two plus years) cannot be relied on to report fully the significance of any one event, or to give full context to it. That ties to your recent post reporting on how Beryl Howell chides folks for thinking they know most of what the investigation knows. I’d guess that only the Special Counsel’s group can know that much, and then only by dint of numerous people with good memories and good databases working full time on the project. You do a great job, too. But as you note, it behooves others to avoid trying to wrap too much context around specific nuggets of information. Still, that can be difficult if you’re trying to sound knowledgeable, and trying to attract or keep readers.
The fake electors plot was easy for lawyers to grok, and also made it easy for them to scream about why action wasn’t taken more quickly.
They have for the most part dismissed any possibility there’s something to learn from the crime scene, even though there are actually a slew of VIPs who were there.
Adding: I’m neither a reporter nor a professor nor a lawyer nor a researcher but I watched most of the January 6 Committee hearings so even *I* know that that the plot to overthrow the election was multi-layered and interwoven. All the different parts worked together towards the same aim…which means all the different actors were working together.
(Okay, Trump never met with the “normies” who are doing time for their actions on Jan. 6, but this whole conspiracy is a “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” game in which none of the conspirators have more than 3 degrees of separation from each other.)
*”has” more than 3 degrees of separation.
Speaking of the crime scene, I remember thinking the night of January 6–as cable news started giving human interest stories of those valiantly trying to clean up the Capitol (including some members of Congress) in preparation for resuming the electoral count–shouldn’t the place be preserved as evidence?
I understood, of course, the ritual importance of the count taking place in the Senate chamber. And having cleaned up my share of human shit, I empathize completely with the urgency to expunge it. But that too was evidence, and the Rotunda in its violated state might not have been human remains, but its image seems to have been similarly erased along with the true history of the events that day.
Matt and Meshawn Maddock were there too! Meeshie-boo was the co-chair of the MIGOP and Matt was an elected state representative at that time! Meeshie was indicted by the State AG, Dana Nessel. I’m very willing to bet there were many more fake electors there on j6 – among other “VIP”s
I agree that keeping up with the multi-pronged investigations (appropriate for a multi-pronged attack) can be difficult. That’s one reason why Marcy’s work is to be greatly appreciated.
This makes no difference to the overall value of her contributions but to correct her August 9 post on “Overt Investigative Steps…” it should be noted that the Jan6 Committee transmitted a subpoena to Chesebro on March 1, 2022, rather than waiting until July.
https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/chesebro-house-letter.pdf
Thanks. Noted the correction in the post.
The Guardian has one of those “his neighbors thought he was a nice quiet guy” pieces about Chesebro: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/19/kenneth-chesebro-trump-georgia-indictment-fake-electors
Turns out he was a student and colleague of Lawrence Tribe, a source for the article. Chesebro moved to the right wing after making a few million in bitcoin. Apparently there’s a bar investigation. Tribe filed one of the complaints.
And a growing discussion of whether Chesebro made real money on bitcoin or whether that alleged source was cover for something else, some other dynamic not yet disclosed. I also fail to see why making a pot of money, per se, shifts someone’s politics or gives their owner the confidence to let them out.
I’ve seen it happen a couple times: someone has a windfall to the tunes of millions and, after writing the tax check, veered hard right. I’m not sure that’s what happened here, though. Sounds possible. Definitely should be of interest to J6 prosecutors.
There has always been a strong overlap between cryptocurrency adherents and QAnon infected.
I’ve never been able to see cryptocurrency as anything but a scam to avoid a regulated banking system. Who can’t see this? Are the people who can’t see this also likely to fall prey to conspiracy theories and theorists like Alex Jones?
Is that why cryptocurrency emerged as it did, when it did, in tandem with QAnon and other political conspiracy theories — as a transnational influence operation intent less on ready distribution of currency but on identifying the vulnerable who can be manipulated by promises of unearned wealth and other shady narratives with no previous proven payout?
Was Cheseboro one of these dupes who in pre-crypto times already had other strong influences to follow, but caved once the crypto bug bit him?
Those are some great questions, Rayne.
Is cryptocurrency just coincidental to the rise in distrust of governments, or is it coordinated with a scheme to discredit government controls? (My words, not yours.)
Hate to be too conspiratorial, but the powers that can control these mobs, can also have huge control over financial markets. Obviously many of these powers are more of the libertarian – or perhaps even anti-democratic bent.
There’s a lot of money riding on reduction of financial systems regulation, whether petro/narco states or billionaire hedge fund operators — sometimes there’s little daylight between them. Think about the nearly $7B the Renaissance hedge fund was ordered to pay to IRS, a fund founded and operated in part by right-wing sugar daddy Robert Mercer. There’s enough incentive to make it worthwhile to these guys to destabilize the existing system by whatever means they can afford.
While I agree with you Rayne, crypto is something more than a scam to avoid a regulated banking system: It’s a pyramid scheme.
If you haven’t already, I really recommend watching Dan Olson’s Line Goes Up – The Problem with NFTs. NFTs are where the crypto community has moved on to after coins, and while it seems to already have crashed and burned (in favor of “AI” research), it’s worth looking at. Olson traces a neat line from the banking crash in 2008 up to today.
I did write “scam,” yes? The pyramid component is how buy-in is obtained across an audience which otherwise might not give a fig about financial distribution systems.
The same buy-in process which appears to increase wealth from thin air also relies on QAnon community chatter against the Deep State and its regulation of banking.
Conspiracy theorists have always been interested in alternate currencies. There’s an aspect of the insight that “money is just a societally agreed upon fiction” that resonates with people who are questioning how everything works. 19th Century conspiracy theories often tended to revolve around gold or silver backing for currency — I don’t remember offhand when the Fed entered the picture, but it’s currency power has been conspiracy-theory bait since the moment it was created.
Not to mention how railing about “bankers” is a good way to dogwhistle anti-semitism. So they’re often looking for ways to keep those “bankers” separate from their business.
As a teen I was first introduced to the idea of alternate currencies by “flaxscrip” and “hempscrip” which appeared in The Illuminatus! Trilogy — which in the story were as much about promoting buyin to the social ecosystem as any real “currency” power. Having been exposed to that framing let me watch the whole rise of cryptocurrencies (which I’ve been watching for a long time now) with an appropriately jaundiced eye.
Yeah, I hear you, but all of the conspiracy theory bullshit cannot set aside the Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 which says Congress has the power
Cryptocurrency and other alternate currencies are end runs around this.
Professor Tribe seems to have been chief among the “libs” Chesebro was looking forward to owning, or at least turning the tables on, with his brilliant plan.
I’m sorry, did you not know that law prawfs and “former federal prosecutors” are the only experts in America as to the law?
They’re not?
I’m getting wrapped around some multiple “nots” between you and bmaz. Who’s on first?
Who is.
Go ahead, back up.
He’s on deck.
The chief reporter for the Guardian US, Ed Pilkington always seems a little off in his appreciation of US events. His appreciation of Chesebro, for example, basically mirrors Tribe’s – I don’t really have a clue about why he would be a Trumpy or a legal mastermind behind his coup. But it takes him 46 paragraphs to get there, which makes his analysis little more than “shit happens.”
So he’s helping dampen outrage over and normalize Chesebro’s actions, then?
That’s… disappointing. Tribe has a mentor relationship as excuse, what’s Pilkington’s?
“But amid all that newfound visibility, it’s worth remembering that some people knew to — and did — monitor all this in real time.”
Speaking of monitoring, I am reminded that CNN’s Jim Acosta said this on Jan. 6th: “A source close to the White House who is in touch with some of the rioters at the Capitol said it’s the goal of those involved to stay inside the Capitol through the night.”
What exactly is giving you the impression that Chesebro is “monitoring” Jones rather than just filming the action going on around Jones? You say that it’s clear he’s not participating in the riot, and that he’s not fan worshiping. And obviously he had written about the importance of Jan 6 in his memos. Is it just those ideas that are leading to the conclusion that he was monitoring vs recording? Or is there more to it?
If he was monitoring – do you think he was recording, or livestreaming? Is it possible that Chesebro’s video has been obtained by DOJ?
[Welcome back to emptywheel. SECOND REQUEST: Please use a more differentiated username when you comment next as we have several community members named “Ben,” “Benjamin” or some variant of “Bennet.” Please use a minimum of 8 characters to ensure a distinctive name. Until you’ve selected a new username, yours will be edited to reflect the date/time of your first comment. Thanks. /~Rayne]
Neither Chesebro nor Jones was a tourist caught in an unexpected riot. Chesebro was their for a purpose that required he be glued to Jones, rather like the videographer who captured Roger Stone dictating a memo about fake electors.
The difference between monitoring and recording Jones is a nuance. My assumption is that those watching what Chesebro was filming were sending feedback, almost certainly coordinating, based on how closely the riot mirrored what they wanted to happen. But proof would be nice. And it seems unlikely that the Feds don’t already have this data.
I would think this would be live streaming, and I can imagine there would be quite a few people off site who would have a keen interest if what Jones is doing is going according to plan. And if not, those off site might want to give instructions or course corrections. What I dont know is, if it WAS live streaming, and not just simply recording, is there some way to know who is (or rather, was) viewing a live stream as it happened?
Access to Chesebro’s phone or service provider would help.
Speculating on speculation here about Cheeseboro’s function / mission, but if he was a war reporter so to speak feeding info back to the war room, or others not in attendance it’s likely and hopefully traceable who was looped in to view his feed, no.? if things werent going according to plan , or were, someone somewhere controlled the switch to activate, the QRF’s or the pipe bombs, or the dudes in the trees with the A15’s.
it may welll have been multi pronded. There is evidence of , and convictions related to separate prongs, but as Judge Berry has said, there is a much to the investigation the public does not know, yet.
It occurs to me that Chesebro is maybe the only actor in this mess with whom the Feds and Willis would not be willing to entertain a plea deal.
The reason (other than he was the “brains” behind the fake elector scheme and therefore as deserving of conviction as anyone other than Trump) is that he would then undoubtedly be paranoically framed by the MAGA crowd as an entrapment-plant because of his prior association with Tribe, and the “legal” rationale for the fake elector scheme he provided which he “obviously crafted to be illegal on purpose.”
As I think about it, I wouldn’t at all be surprised, in that regard, to see them start making that charge at any time anyway after this filming of Jones gets their attention, saying that he was relaying the data in real time to “his deep state minders in the Biden cabal.” Tribe’s published bafflement at Chesebro’s flipping to the dark side, and his statement that Chesebro “knew better” would be cited as evidence that his flip was manufactured for just this eventuality.
https://www.justsecurity.org/87498/kenneth-chesebros-misrepresentation-of-laurence-tribe-scholarship-in-his-efforts-to-overturn-the-2020-presidential-election/
Just a wild guess based on MAGA psychopathologies.
Chesebro was probably a ‘node’ in the battle plan, sending and receiving instructions or information from headquarters.
(i have long speculated that the obsessive filming of their actions by the insurrectionists was to present as a receipt at some future time, to receive their ‘pay-off’ or reward.
it is so different from other criming, to want to document it to the extent of even earning oneself jail-time, but fervently hoped to be worth it once the Glorious Restoration has been achieved.)
It’s a fair question, and I’m agnostic about whether he was filming or livestreaming, though as noted there was a great deal of livestreaming.
In my mind *participating* in the riot involves a kind of EITHER spectacular interaction or awe. This all seems very cold and too disciplined to even be memorials.
Footage for an envisioned historical documentary of “The Day When The Deep State Got Overthrown”?
Or maybe Jones’ potential reward was contingent on visual confirmation to a/the boss that Jones carried out his end of the program.
My wife got into a shouting match with Jones supporter at a little 15-minute oil change shop nearby, because he couldn’t bear reading the bumper sticker on her car (he had an Infowars.com bumper sticker). She was reading a recent book on Lincoln when he started the whole thing. He picked on the wrong “lib” 😂.
I’m leaning toward livestreaming. Why would he be taking the risk of being there simply to document? Plenty of people surrounding Jones could do that and probably were doing that. Chesebro is not a Jones acolyte. I don’t see any reason for him to be there shadowing him if not to send the info back to someone else in real time. He was acting as someone else’s eyes. Question is was that to make sure he did what he was supposed to or was it to give him directions relayed from someone with an understanding of the big picture. I think the latter.
If you follow some of links Marcy provided you will see Jonas leading his group to the east end where “they had a permit to speak” and Trump was anticipated to arrive and speak. And Trump certainly tried to get his Secret Service detail to get him there, who refused. Was Chesebro a forward sentinel relaying information regarding the viability of Trump coming over?
Sorry…. I meant Jones, not Jonas. That’s a whale of a typo. And by all mean please delete the double posts, I thought I could go back and correct my blunder.
If you follow some of links Marcy provided you will see Jonesleading his group to the east end where “they had a permit to speak” and Trump was anticipated to arrive and speak. And Trump certainly tried to get his Secret Service detail to get him there, who refused. Was Chesebro a forward sentinel relaying information regarding the viability of Trump coming over?
That’s a really interesting question. Perhaps he was talking with Secret Service people.
Been awhile since anyone mentioned Tony Ornato.
I think Chesebro might have been livestreaming to Ornato at the White House. See my comment below with the link to the CNN piece.
I think the livestreaming makes sense except for the messaging and sharing with Jones’ people. That looks like coordination.
Proposing that Chesebro envisioned a successful operation, is it possible that he was not ‘monitoring’, but documenting for posterity, the fruits of his effort?
That would be an improbably passive role for the HLS-trained Chesebro, in the midst of a violent mob assaulting the Capitol. There would have been dozens of other people who could have been drafted in as a videographer.
Interestingly, Jones’ own videographer was arrested for trespassing in a different part of the building.
According to the Guardian article by Pilkington (8/19/23,) in 2016 Chesebro worked on a case with John Eastman. Then in 2018 he worked on a case with Jim Troupis for Ted Cruz and Mike Lee.
If Chesebro wasn’t filming J6 events on behalf of Alex Jones, and was brought into the conspiracy by his friend, Troupis,
it seems possible that Cruz or Lee might know something about it.
Lee sent a text to Meadows on 1/3/21 that said, “I have grave concerns with the way my friend Ted is going about this effort.” So, maybe Lee wanted Chesebro to keep an eye on things. That might explain Chesebro’s somewhat detached demeanor.
Of course, there are many other possibilities, as well. Eastman, Troupis, Cruz, or someone else could have asked Chesebro to be there.
Today I listened for the first time to the audio on the 33 min A Jones video promoted by Capitolhunters. There is a gap between the footage showing the interchanges between Jones and LEOs on the way to the E side of the Capitol as he solicited their assistance in getting a good vantage to address the crowd and the footage some time later (2:17 pm and later) when Jones reached the E side and addressed the crowd.
I was struck by the difference between the exculpatory sounding statements by Jones and his staff, especially while promising LEOs he was there to deescalate the situation versus the incendiary chants that Jones led when he was later ensconced among the crowd. I can see how it would take a lot to overcome reasonable doubt about Jones’ intentions if his earlier statements are taken at face value. OTOH, I can see how extremely cynical and calculated those statements appear once Jones’ comms and maneuvers can be reliably placed into a larger matrix of tactical planning.
The Chesebro factor seems to nudge that balance toward the more ominous take. I sure hope DOJ got a good look at whatever Chesboro was doing with his phone.
DOJ has some footage from that gap.
But Owen Shroyer tried to make precisely that argument and for the reasons you lay out, it didn’t fly with Judge Tim Kelly.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/12/09/doj-already-debunked-the-lies-ali-alexander-is-about-to-tell-congress/
I have re-watched the CNN piece. At 2:37 you see a younger man with a chin strap beard standing to the right as Chesebro appears to be listening to someone on the phone while still streaming the visual. A few seconds after that the young man is on the other side of Chesebro and he is being shown something on the phone by Chesebro.
The young man has been identified by others as a security person from the Alex Jones posse. I think Chesebro is providing realtime visuals to someone (the White House ?) and taking marching orders based on what the recipient is seeing.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/kenneth-chesebro-alleged-architect-fake-100032958.html
Yep. Certainly identifying and interviewing that security person might help at least clarify what those few moments were about.
In one of the video clips I see what looks like an orange foam earplug in Chesebro’s right ear. It does not look like a wireless earbud, so if Chesebro is communicating with others on the other end of a facetime call, he’d need a way to hear them.
Has any vide clip caught Chesebro’s left ear?
Are there orange wireless earbuds that look like what Chesebro has in his ear?
Not uncommon to use text comms “downstream” to those in field (esp. if there’s a live continuous channel open). If they’re smart, commands and phrasing worked out in advance to minimize comms needed.
Clearly, at the PB/OK “grunt” level they weren’t that sophisticated (nor needed to be), but at Chesebro’s level higher expectations seem reasonable.
As for why, don’t forget that fundamentally, none of these people trust each other. Chesebro might have been the equivalent of a “political officer” making sure Jones didn’t go “off the rails” and start prioritizing himself over the operation. For folks like them, where trust is non-existent, that only happens by having someone more “invested” watching and able to step in and take over if need be.
BTW, that Jones had his own cult of personality, and they represented a significant percentage of the total present, is precisely the kind of situation where the “powers that be” running things might see need to embed oversight with Jones to ensure he “sticks to the plan” (and trigger quick response if he didn’t, w.r.t. AR15s in trees or whatever).
If Cheseboro is using an iPhone, I supposed he could be facetiming (live-streaming) with unknown others on iPhones. Any chance this was happening during Stone’s 90 minute “nap” at the Willard and during Trump’s alone time in the private WH dining room?
I suspect that there are folks working on timeline integration of Chesebro and other things that occurred cotemperaneoiusly throughout his being at the Capitol. As pointed out elsewhere, it’ll be interesting to see how Jones asking for assistance from local police prior to getting to the East side of the Capitol figures into Chesebro’s actions, etc.
People have said that the dry run for Jan. 6 was the Michigan state house. But during the astroturfing that birthed the tea party movement, there was a concerted effort by RWNJ media to promote travel arrangements to tea party events gold bug advertising. It’s looking like the nearly same cast of characters as well. Did I miss Glenn Beck in the crowd somewhere?
This is all sounding very familiar, in a “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes” sort of way.
I am late to the party again, but it seems compelling that Chesebro might be a logical candidate to be the link between the “muscle” or the boots on the ground on Jan.6 and the White House. Maybe he was in live FaceTime mode with someone at the Willard Hotel, which is still a center of intrigue in this whole mess. I wonder if Jack Smith was able to get phone traffic or call records from the various Willard Hotel rooms and conference rooms used by the J6 plotters before, on and after J6?