Attorney Dana Nessel, accompanied by her family, made a significant announcement for her bid as Michigan’s Attorney General in Braun Court Ann Arbor on August 15, 2017 (Mandi Wright | Detroit Free Press | Tribune News Service via Getty Images).
Michigan’s attorney general has taken legal action against 16 individuals known as “fake electors” in connection with former President Donald Trump’s fraudulent attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in the state’s 2020 election. These individuals face eight charges each, including conspiracy, election law forgery, and uttering and publishing. State Attorney General Dana Nessel released a video announcement condemning their “desperate effort” to undermine democracy. It is worth noting that some of the accused individuals are active in Republican politics. Nessel’s office has not ruled out the possibility of pursuing criminal charges against additional defendants.
This case marks the first instance of criminal charges being brought against members of fake Electoral College slates supporting Trump. Nessel’s announcement closely followed Trump’s statement about being targeted in a federal criminal probe led by Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, investigating attempts to reverse the ex-president’s loss in 2020. Smith’s investigation specifically focuses on the use of fake Electoral College slates to challenge Biden’s victory.
The alleged scheme in Michigan took place on December 14, 2020. The defendants met secretly in the basement of the state GOP headquarters, signing documents claiming to be the legitimate electors for the state in the Electoral College. However, Nessel asserts that they were not duly elected or qualified electors, and each defendant was aware of this fact. After the meeting, some of the false electors tried to enter the state Capitol with their fabricated electoral votes but were denied access. The counterfeit electoral documents were then sent to the U.S. Senate and the National Archives, with the intention of Vice President Mike Pence using the false electoral slate to overturn the election results.
Among 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 carry maximum prison sentences of up to 14 years. The defendants have been given one week to surrender on these charges, while the investigation by Nessel’s office continues.
In early 2021, CNN reported that Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, was overheard on an audio recording at a public event stating, “We fought to seat the electors. The Trump campaign asked us to do that.” Nessel highlighted that three days prior to the meeting of the fake electors and the signing of fraudulent documents, the U.S. Supreme Court had dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas challenging the election results in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Apart from Michigan, there were similar endeavors in other states as well. Supporters of Trump, falsely claiming widespread ballot fraud, assembled alternative slates of Electoral College members in Arizona, Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. These would-be electors were hoping that then-Vice President Pence would accept their slates as legitimate, as part of his constitutional duties presiding over the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, to certify Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. However, Pence rejected the push by Trump and his lawyer John Eastman to accept the electors in states won by Biden. The session was interrupted by a violent mob of Trump supporters storming the U.S. Capitol, forcing Pence and members of Congress to seek shelter.
Nessel emphasized that “there was no legal authority for the false electors to purport to act as ‘duly elected presidential electors’ and execute the false electoral documents.” By the time the fake electors convened, every serious challenge to the election had been denied, dismissed, or rejected. Their document and alternative slate of electors had no legitimate legal basis or plausible use.
Similarly, last summer, the Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, an Atlanta prosecutor, stated that all 16 individuals who acted as fake electors in Georgia were under investigation for their connection to Trump and his allies’ attempt to overturn Biden’s victory in that state. As of May, at least half of those Georgia fake electors had reached immunity agreements with the prosecutor.
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