Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday that she has filed charges against 16 people who signed paperwork falsely claiming that President Donald Trump had won the 2020 election as part of a scheme to overturn the results. U.S. presidents are technically voted in by slates of electors from each state who cast their votes for the candidate selected by their states’ popular vote. In December 2020, as Trump tried to overturn the results of the election, his allies readied alternative slates of electors in several states. The Associated Press has the story:
Michigan charges 16 fake electors for Trump
Newslooks- LANSING, Mich. (AP)
Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges Tuesday against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for then-President Donald Trump in 2020, accusing them of submitting false certificates confirming they were legitimate electors despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state.
Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that all 16 individuals would get eight criminal charges, including two counts of forgery, which is a 14-year felony. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party.
“It would be malfeasance of the greatest magnitude if my department failed to act here in the face of overwhelming evidence of an organized effort to circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of Michigan voters in a presidential election,” Nessel said in a statement.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House after the charges were announced.
The group is alleged to have met on December 14, 2020, and signed their names to multiple certificates stating they were the qualified electors for Trump. These false documents were then transmitted to the U.S. Senate and National Archives.
In January of last year, Nessel asked federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into 16 Republicans.
Nessel alleged a “coordinated effort” among Republican parties in several battleground states, including Michigan, to push so-called alternate slates of electors with fake documents. She said she wants federal authorities to make an evaluation for possible charges.
