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Michigan Attorney General Charges Fake Trump Electors Over Alleged 2020 Election Crimes


ichigan Attorney General Dana Nessel criminally charged 16 so-called
“fake electors” for Donald Trump in an allegedly fraudulent effort to
reverse Joe Biden’s victory in the state’s 2020 election.
Nessel called the plan by the Michigan defendants, most of whom are
active in Republican politics, “an effort to undermine democracy.”
Separately, Trump said special counsel Jack Smith notified him he’s a target in a federal criminal probe over attempts to overturn the election.

Attorney Dana Nessel, surrounded by her family, announces her bid for
Michigan Attorney General in Braun Court Ann Arbor on Tuesday, Aug. 15,
2017.
Attorney Dana Nessel, surrounded by her family, announces her bid for
Michigan Attorney General in Braun Court Ann Arbor on Tuesday, Aug. 15,
2017.
Mandi Wright | Detroit Free Press | Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Michigan’s attorney general on Tuesday criminally charged 16 so-called
“fake electors” for former President Donald Trump, accusing them of a fraudulent effort to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory in the state’s
2020 election.

The 16 people each face eight charges, including conspiracy, election law forgery, and uttering and publishing, state Attorney General Dana Nessel
said in a video announcement.

Nessel called the alleged plan a “desperate effort” to “undermine
democracy.” Several of the accused are active in Republican politics.

Nessel has not ruled out potential criminal charges against additional defendants, her office said.

The case is the first time that any members of fake Electoral College
slates for Trump have been criminally charged.

Nessel’s announcement also came hours after Trump said that Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith has designated him a target in a
federal criminal probe of attempts to undo the ex-president’s loss in
2020.

Smith’s investigation is focused on, among other things, the attempted use
of fake Electoral College slates to thwart Biden’s victory.
The alleged Michigan scheme

On Dec. 14, 2020, weeks after Biden defeated Trump by more than 154,000
votes in Michigan, the defendants met covertly in the basement of the
state GOP headquarters and signed documents claiming to be the legally qualified electors for the state in the Electoral College, according to
Nessel.

“That was a lie,” Nessel said. “They weren’t the duly elected and
qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it.”

After that meeting, “some of the false electors attempted to enter the
state Capitol and deliver their fabricated electoral votes to the Senate
floor, but were turned away,” she said.

The bogus electoral documents were then sent to the U.S. Senate and the National Archives “with the intent that Vice President Mike Pence would overturn the results of the election using the false electoral slate,”
Nessel said.

Nessel said the defendants are: Kathy Berden, Rose Rook, Mayra Rodriguez, William “Hank” Choate, Meshawn Maddock, Mari-Ann Henry, John Haggard,
Clifford Frost, Kent Vanderwood, Stanley Grot, Marian Sheridan, Timothy
King, James Renner, Michel Lundgren, Amy Facchinello and Ken Thompson.

The charges announced Tuesday have maximum possible prison sentences of up
to 14 years. The defendants have been given a week to surrender on the
charges, said Nessel, whose office said the investigation is continuing.

CNN reported in early 2021 that Maddock, the co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party was heard on an audio recording at a public event as
saying, “We fought to seat the electors. The Trump campaign asked us to do that.”

Nessel on Tuesday noted that three days before the fake electors met and
signed the fraudulent documents, the U.S. Supreme Court had dismissed a
lawsuit by the state of Texas challenging the election results in
Michigan, as well as in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Other states under scrutiny

Michigan’s 16 Electoral College votes helped provide Biden with his margin
of victory against Trump.

The Electoral College, not the popular vote, determines the winners of presidential elections.

Allies of Trump in Michigan and several other states, arguing falsely that
he was the victim of widespread ballot fraud, assembled would-be slates of Electoral College members with an eye toward asking then-Vice President
Pence to accept the slates as valid.

In addition to Michigan, the so-called alternate electors’ slates came
from Arizona, Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Pence, as part of his constitutional duties, presided over a joint session
of Congress that began meeting Jan. 6, 2021, to certify Biden’s victory in
the Electoral College.

Pence rejected a push by Trump, and Trump’s lawyer John Eastman, to accept
the then-president’s electors in states Biden won. The proceeding was
disrupted by the invasion of the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of Trump supporters, causing Pence and members of Congress to flee and hide.

“The evidence will demonstrate there was no legal authority for the false electors to purport to act as ‘duly elected presidential electors’ and
execute the false electoral documents,” Nessel said Tuesday.

“Every serious challenge to the election had been denied, dismissed, or otherwise rejected by the time the false electors convened,” Nessel said. “There was no legitimate legal avenue or plausible use of such a document
or an alternative slate of electors.”

Last summer, an Atlanta prosecutor told all 16 people who acted as fake electors in Georgia were targets of her criminal probe of Trump and his
allies for their attempt to undo Biden’s victory in that state.

At least half of those Georgia fake electors since have reached immunity
deals with the prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, according to a court filing in May.

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