Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday that she has filed charges against 16 people who signed documents falsely claiming President Donald Trump had won the 2020 election as part of a scheme to overturn the results.
Technically, US presidents are voted for by lists of electors from each state who cast their votes for the candidate selected by the popular vote of their states. In December 2020, as Trump tried to overturn the election results, his allies prepared alternate voter lists in several states.
These appear to be the first charges filed against fake voters.
The announcement came the same day that Trump said he was notified that he is the subject of an investigation by a Washington-based grand jury looking into the January 6 riots and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The 16 people charged in Michigan allegedly met in the basement of the state’s Republican Party headquarters and signed various certificates stating that they were “the duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the state.” of Michigan”. Nessel said in recorded comments.
“That was a lie. They were not the duly chosen and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it,” he continued.
Some of the voters tried to deliver these false documents to the state Senate, but they were rejected, he said; the documents were later sent to the US Senate and the National Archives “with the intent to have Vice President Pence overturn the election results, using the fake voter rolls,” Nessel said.
Nessel said the “false voters” are being charged with eight felonies each, including forgery.
“The actions of the fake voters undermine the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections and not only violated the spirit of the laws that enshrine and uphold our democracy, but we believe they also clearly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan and peacefully transferred power in the United States,” he said.
The 16 people include Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock and state Republican National Committee member Kathy Berden. Michele Lundgren, who was also charged, previously he told local television station WDIV that he thought he was signing a sign-in sheet for a meeting.
“I didn’t even know what a voter was, let alone a fake voter,” he told the station.
Nessel had previously referred the case of the 16 Michigan voters to the Justice Department, but Bridge Michigan reported earlier this year he was reopening his investigation because federal authorities had yet to file charges.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, refused to prosecute fake voters in that state, while a Georgia prosecutor doing research Trump and his allies have told fake voters they could face criminal charges.
kay guerrero contributed.
