Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer criminally charged in Georgia for his role in what prosecutors describe as a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald J. Trump, accepted a plea deal on Friday, becoming the third of 19 co-defendants to plead guilty in the wide-ranging criminal racketeering indictment that also names Mr. Trump.
The plea from Mr. Chesebro, 62, came a day after Sidney K. Powell, another Trump-aligned lawyer charged in the case, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. Both defendants had exercised their right to a speedy trial under Georgia law, and had been preparing for jury selection to start on Monday.
Their trial will no longer go forward. But Mr. Chesebro’s plea has added to a sudden sense of momentum in favor of prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga. As part of his plea deal, Mr. Chesebro agreed to “truthfully testify” against the remaining co-defendants, as did Ms. Powell and Scott Hall, an Atlanta bail bondsman who accepted a plea deal in the case in late September.
These developments spell only bad news for Mr. Trump and his 15 remaining co-defendants, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, his former personal lawyer, and Mark Meadows, his former White House chief of staff, who are set to be tried at a later date.
Mr. Chesebro, a Harvard-educated lawyer, was accused in the indictment of conspiring to create slates of so-called fake electors pledged to Mr. Trump in Georgia and several other states that Mr. Biden had won.
This is a developing news story. Check back for updates.