Just hours after former US President Donald Trump was informed by special counsel Jack Smith that he is the target of a grand jury investigation looking into his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, a Michigan Attorney General charged 16 fake electors for their alleged attempt to overturn election results in that state.
Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced the charges on Tuesday, listing 16 Michigan residents, including the national committeewoman of the Republican Party of Michigan Kathy Berden and the former co-chair of the Republican Party of Michigan, Meshawn Maddock.
They, along with 14 other fake electors are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, one count of uttering and publishing, one count of conspiracy to commit election law forgery and two counts of election law forgery.
All charges are felonies and carry a sentence of five to 14 years each. Uttering and publishing is a charge related to forging documents and attempting to pass them off as legitimate.
Some readers may be surprised to learn that individual votes are not officially counted by the federal government in presidential elections. Instead, each state selects “electors” that are decided by voting on the state level. These electors then submit their choice to Congress which tallies their votes to determine who won the election in a process known as the Electoral College.
The alleged fake elector plan consisted of sending impostor electors in an attempt to get the electoral college votes switched to Trump in crucial swing states that President Joe Biden won.
“The false electors’ actions undermined the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan,” said Nessel, adding that “the evidence will demonstrate there was no legal authority for the false electors to purport to act as ‘duly elected presidential electors’ and execute the false electoral documents.”
The statement by Nessel says each defendant has been notified and will soon be told when to appear in court.