Kenneth Chesebro’s ‘random’ insurrection tweets prove the internet is forever | Opinion
Like a comedian testing a joke, Chesebro was throwing out insurrection plots to gauge public interest before he acted on it
If you needed a secret handle for a burner account, what would you go with?
It's not unusual for celebrities and politicians to have a secret alternative account where they can tweet, post, email, etc., without culpability or worrying about what it "looks" like. Infamously, NBA Star Kevin Durant admitted that he had a burner account where he engages with people who criticize him. We learned later last year that Gov. Tony Evers went with warren.spahn@wisconsin.gov for his alternative email account. Scott Walker's was kevin.scott@wisconsin.gov.
And now we learned that former Trump campaign attorney, alleged architect of the Trump fake electors plot to overturn the 2020 election, and Wisconsin native, Kenneth Chesebro went with “@BadgerPundit”. I guess he couldn’t really go with “@CheeseBro61” without giving himself away.
Kennneth Chesebro secretly tweeted false claims of insurrection
What did he tweet from this anonymous account? Well, he live tweeted the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol. He tweeted more than 50 times that then-Vice President Mike Pence could count the false Trump electors. In general, he tweeted theories on how Trump could avoid leaving office.
Chesebro's lawyers have confirmed that he did, indeed, own @BadgerPundit. But insist that the account was used as his “random stream of consciousness” where he was “spitballing” theories about the election.
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Which reminds me of how comedians use Twitter: just throw a joke out to see what kind of traction it gets before putting it into your act. Except, this time, Chesebro was throwing out insurrection plots to gauge public interest before he acted on it.
But unfortunately for him, he did act on it, and the proof of these anonymous tweets are not great news for his legal troubles because it proves that he was less than honest when he was interviewed by Michigan investigators last year. Not only did he deny using Twitter or having any “alternate IDs”, what he tweeted from this anonymous account promoted a much more aggressive election subversion strategy than he let on in that interview.
Guess someone should have reminded him: The internet is forever.
Kristin Brey is the "My Take" columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.