Michigan plays a role in Jack Smith's Jan. 6 indictment against Trump

The federal grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday in Washington that charges former President Donald Trump with trying to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election includes a lot of references to Michigan.

That's little wonder, given that Michigan was one of the states where Trump and his allies tried to press baseless claims that election fraud had cost him the election to President Joe Biden.

No evidence for those claims ever existed and none of them was ever proven in court. A legislative investigation — headed by a Republican — found no evidence of widespread fraud. Biden beat Trump — as the Free Press has reported since the day the tally was called — fairly, and by more than 154,000 votes.

That didn't keep Trump and his allies from trying to argue otherwise, as has been reported multiple times in reports following the election, inquiries into the events of the Jan. 6 riot where Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol in hopes of keeping Congress from certifying the result and the congressional committee that investigated that attack.

Now, Special Counsel Jack Smith's indictment against Trump on four counts raises the stakes against Trump, even as he attempts to run for reelection against Biden next year. Here are some of the specific mentions of Michigan in the 45-page indictment handed up on Tuesday:

The fake electors scheme

The indictment said Trump and his coconspirators organized fraudulent slates of electors in several states, including Michigan, and then caused these fake slates, which appeared to certify Trump as the winner, to be sent to government officials in an attempt to have them counted at the certification proceeding on Jan. 6, 2021. A key part of Smith's claim that Trump and the others conspired to defraud the U.S. and its voters, the alleged fake elector scheme has resulted in Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also recently bringing charges against the people who signed onto those false certificates.

RNC's Ronna McDaniel mentioned

It notes what could be an important link between Trump and the purported fake elector scheme involving Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, noting that he and a lawyer called her on Dec. 6, 2020, telling her it was important for the RNC to help gather those electors in targeted states, including Michigan. She was told by the lawyer "such electors' votes would be used only if ongoing litigation in one of the states changed the results in (Trump's) favor." Even though no legal challenge succeeded, those slates were still signed and sent to officials in Washington as if they were valid.

Trump repeats baseless Detroit claim

It noted that Trump continued to claim that there had been a "suspicious dump of votes — purportedly illegitimate ballots" in the early hours the day after Election Day in Detroit, despite being told outright by both former state Senate Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, and former U.S. Attorney General William Barr that there hadn't been widespread fraud in Detroit or elsewhere. Coconspirators continued to use that unsubstantiated claim to get Michigan legislators to hold up any certification of the election but state legislative leaders refused to do so. "(We) have not received evidence of fraud on a scale that would change the outcome," Shirkey said. Trump continued to repeat the claim, however.

Ultimately, the grand jury leveled four charges at Trump: conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by working to overturn the election; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, namely the certification of the November 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021; obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, that same official proceeding, and "conspiracy against rights," specifically the right of people to vote and have their votes counted.

Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan plays a role in Jack Smith's Jan. 6 indictment against Trump