Michigan AG calls on DOJ to probe fake GOP elector documents

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) called on the federal government to open a probe into over a dozen Republicans who falsely claimed that they were the Wolverine States's electors during the 2020 presidential election.

Nessel said Thursday on "The Rachel Maddow Show" that her office investigated 16 Republicans who signed false certificates claiming to be electors in Michigan, despite President Biden's win in the state.

The attorney general's office had been mulling charges for these individuals for a year, but decided it would be best to refer them to the Justice Department, according to Nessel.

Nessel claimed that there was an effort by GOP in several battleground states to put forth a different slate of electors with fraudulent documents.

"Under state law, I think clearly you have forgery of a public record, which is a 14-year offense, and election law forgery, which is a five-year offense," she told the show's host, Rachel Maddow.

However, Nessel believes the federal government should investigate and possibly prosecute the case.

The Associated Press reported that the Office of the Federal Register, which organizes some functions of the Electoral College and Congress, alerted Michigan election officials and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's lawyer that it had received signed certificates from GOP electors that had not been appointed by the governor.

Among those received by the Register were certificates from RNC member Kathy Berden and Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock, according to the wire service.

Michigan GOP spokesperson Gustavo Portela released a statement calling the move by Nessel "nothing more than political prosecution of convenience."

She is "playing political games with people's lives and livelihoods for the sake of scoring political points ahead of an election" and it is "shameful" she waited a year to reveal this information, Portela added.

President Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 154,000 votes.