Trump's fake electors charged by Michigan AG in alleged 2020 election scheme

Attorney General Dana Nessel announced felony charges Tuesday against the group of Michigan Republicans who allegedly participated in a scheme to try to award the state's Electoral College votes to former President Donald Trump with a phony certificate in the 2020 election despite his 154,188-vote loss in the state.

Those criminally charged include a former leader of the Michigan GOP, a former Michigan Republican National Committeewoman and other ardent Trump advocates:

• Meshawn Maddock: Republicans chose Maddock to serve as Michigan GOP co-chair after the 2020 election.

• Kathy Berden: In 2015, the state committee of the Michigan GOP elected Berden as the party's national committeewoman. The fake certificate of electors lists Berden as "Chairperson, Electoral College of Michigan."

• Mayra Rodriguez: Rodriguez is a Michigan lawyer facing a complaint from the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission filed with the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board recommending disciplinary action against her. The fake certificate of electors lists Rodriguez as "Secretary."

• Timothy King: King was the lead plaintiff in a legal effort led by Trump ally Sidney Powell to overturn the 2020 election in Michigan.

• John Haggard: Haggard served as a Republican elector in 2016. He was one of the plaintiffs who brought a lawsuit in the wake of the 2020 election to try to name Trump the winner.

• Stanley Grot: Grot serves as Macomb County's Shelby Township clerk.

• William "Hank" Choate: Choate previously served as the chair of the Jackson County Republican Party and chair of the Michigan GOP's 7th District.

• Amy Facchinello: Facchinello was elected to serve as a board member of Grand Blanc Community Schools in 2020.

• Clifford Frost: Frost previously ran for office and served on the Michigan GOP state committee.

• Mari-Ann Henry: A previous webpage for the Greater Oakland Republican Club showed Henry was involved with the group.

• Michele Lundgren: Lundgren ran as a Republican in 2022 seeking to represent part of Detroit in the Michigan House of Representatives. She lost her election to incumbent state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, D-Hamtramck.

• James Renner: Renner was one of two names that appear on the fake certificate of electors who was not originally nominated by the state's Republican Party to serve as an elector in the event of a Trump victory.

• Ken Thompson: Thompson is the second individual whose name appears on the fake certificate of electors who was not originally nominated by the state's Republican Party to serve as an elector in the event of a Trump victory.

• Rose Rook: Rook has held various local leadership positions with the Republican Party.

• Marian Sheridan: Sheridan currently serves as the Michigan GOP's grassroots vice-chair. She was also a plaintiff in the federal election lawsuit to try to award Michigan's Electoral College votes to Trump.

• Kent Vanderwood: Vanderwood currently serves as mayor of the city of Wyoming.

The document they signed states that the group of 16 were "...the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Michigan," according to a news release from Nessel's office. "That was a lie," Nessel said in a video announcing the charges brought by her office.

Complaints provided by Nessel's office show each defendant faces eight felony counts each, including forgery-related charges each punishable by up to 14 years in prison and election law forgery charges each punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Those were filed in the 54-A District Court in Ingham County, according to Nessel's office

President Joe Biden won Michigan in 2020, but Trump and his supporters embraced conspiracy theories to level baseless claims that the election was stolen. The news of the criminal charges in Michigan comes the same day Trump announced he is a target of the federal criminal investigation into the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Nessel accused the Trump electors in Michigan of intentionally trying to interfere in the 2020 election to reject the will of voters in the state and ensure their preferred candidate would win.

"This plan — to reject the will of the voters and undermine democracy — was fraudulent and legally baseless," Nessel said in videotaped statement.

Ahead of the 2022 midterm election, Nessel referred her office's probe into the group of Michigan Republicans whose names appear on the fake certificate of electors to federal authorities.

At the time, she said there was no question the Republicans acted illegally when they signed documents to give Trump Michigan's Electoral College votes and attempted to enter the Capitol in Lansing on the same day the state's legitimate electors cast their votes for Biden. But Nessel said that the effort in Michigan appeared to be part of a larger conspiracy that may be better suited for a federal investigation.

Nessel later reversed course. At the start of the year, she announced her decision to reopen a criminal investigation into the group of fake electors after inaction from the federal government. Nessel — Michigan's top law enforcement official — said that the investigation by her office in the alleged effort to interfere in the election remains ongoing and did not rule out future charges against other individuals.

In anticipation of attacks for bringing the criminal charges, Nessel tried to preempt claims of bias. "Undoubtedly, there will be those who will claim these charges are political in nature. But where there is overwhelming evidence of guilt in respect to multiple crimes, the most political act I could engage in as a prosecutor would be to take no action at all," she said.

The U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack heard testimony about the fake electors in Michigan, including revelations of a suggestion by Trump allies to have Republicans sneak into the Michigan State Capitol the night before the actual electors were to meet the next day and cast their votes for Biden.

The committee found that Trump allies pressured state officials in several key swing states, including Michigan, to try to interfere in the election, including by attempting to seat slates of Republican electors. Current Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also told the committee that Trump called her about the effort to seat Republican electors, though she framed it as more of an effort to seat those slates if any of the ongoing court challenges to the election at the time succeeded.

None did.

Former Michigan GOP Chair Laura Cox, meanwhile, detailed to the congressional committee one plan Trump allies discussed with her proposing an attempt to seat fake electors by entering the state Capitol the night before the Electoral College vote. Michigan election law specifically requires the state's presidential electors convene in the Michigan Senate chamber at 2 p.m. EST the day they are supposed to cast the state's votes for president and vice president.

Cox called the idea "insane and inappropriate" in a video of testimony she gave the committee after she was subpoenaed. She said the plan for Republicans to hide overnight in the state Capitol never occurred.

But some Republican lawmakers still joined members of the group of fake Trump electors in an attempt to enter the Michigan State Capitol in December 2020. They were denied access.

But according to Nessel's office, they allegedly met in the basement of the Michigan GOP headquarters on Dec. 14 and signed fake certificates falsely claiming the Republican slate was the legitimate set of delegates to the Electoral College. Those documents were sent to the U.S. Senate and National Archives.

An affidavit in support of the criminal charges against the group of Republicans provided by Nessel's office states that an investigator with the attorney general's office interviewed several Michigan GOP employees who confirmed that the meeting of the Republican electors at the party's building in Lansing was organized by Cox and the Republican National Committee.

Two Republicans refused to participate in the effort to hand Trump a victory in Michigan by transmitting a false certificate of electors. Former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land and Gerald Wall were nominated by the state's Republican Party in 2020 to serve as presidential electors if Trump won, but their names do not appear on the fake certificate.

Each defendant, or their attorneys, have been notified of the charges and the court will provide each with a date to appear before the 54-A District Court in Ingham County for arraignment, according to the release from Nessel's office. No dates have been set yet for the proceedings.

Free Press staff writers Dave Boucher and Todd Spangler contributed to this report

Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on Twitter @clarajanehen.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trump's fake electors in Michigan face criminal charges