Michigan Charges 16 ‘False Electors’ in 2020 Election Scheme
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Tuesday filed felony criminal charges against 16 individuals allegedly involved in a scheme to overturn the 2020 election on behalf of Donald Trump.
The individuals charged, which include Michigan’s Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, state GOP Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock , and a slew of other local party officials, are accused of participating in an effort to subvert the state’s Electoral College vote for Joe Biden by submitting a fake, alternate docket of pro-Trump electors. The charges against each defendant include forgery, election law forgery, and conspiracy to commit forgery, among others.
“They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors and each of the defendants knew it,” Nessel said in a press conference announcing the charges. “They carried out these actions with the hope that the electoral votes of Michigan’s 2020 election would be awarded to the candidate of their choosing, instead of the candidate that Michigan voters actually chose.”
Nessel: They weren't the duly elected and qualified electors and each of the defendants knew it. They carried out these actions with the hope that the electoral votes of Michigan's 2020 election would be awarded to the candidate of their choosing pic.twitter.com/32JaagQDKI
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 18, 2023
The “false electors,” as Nessel described them, allegedly attended a meeting during which some participants signed documents falsely attesting that they were the state’s duly elected Electoral College voters. The slate of fake electors was ultimately sent to Washington, D.C., in a last ditch bid to have Mike Pence introduce the fake votes on Jan. 6 during the Senate’s certification of the Electoral College.
“Every serious challenge to the election had been denied, dismissed, or otherwise rejected by the time the false electors convened,” Nessel said in her statement. “There was no legitimate legal avenue or plausible use of such a document or an alternative slate of electors. There was only the desperate effort of these defendants, who we have charged with deliberately attempting to interfere with and overturn our free and fair election process, and along with it, the will of millions of Michigan voters.”
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