Michigan charges 16 fake electors for Donald Trump with election law and forgery felonies

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Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges Tuesday against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for then-President Donald Trump in 2020, accusing them of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state. (Jul 18)

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Michigan’s attorney general has filed felony charges against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for then-President Donald Trump in 2020. (July 18)

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FILE - A protester waves a Trump flag during rally organized by a group called Election Integrity Fund and Force at the Michigan State Capitol, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, in Lansing, Mich. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP, File)

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FILE - Co-founder of Michigan Trump Republicans Meshawn Maddock’s films while election challengers gather outside the room in the TCF Center in Detroit, where absentee ballots were being counted Wednesday Nov. 4, 2020. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. (Nicole Hester/Ann Arbor News via AP, File)

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FILE - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel speaks during a news conference, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, outside of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office in Flint, Mich. Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP, File)

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The affidavit in support of an arrest warrant for 16 fake Republican electors for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election in Michigan is photographed Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

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FILE - Michigan GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock speaks during an election watch party hosted by Republican Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno at The Suburban Collection showplace in Novi, Mich., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. (Zachary Clingenpeel/The Flint Journal via AP, File)

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FILE - Kathy Berden looks at buttons on a hat during a training session for Women for Trump, An Evening to Empower, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, in Troy, Mich. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

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FILE - Electoral College elector John Haggard reacts after Gov. Rick Snyder announced all 16 of Michigan’s electoral votes for President-elect Donald Trump, Monday, Dec. 19, 2016 in Lansing, Mich. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and Haggard. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

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FILE - Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot speaks with reporters after announcing his 2018 Republican run for Michigan secretary of state on Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017, in front of the Capitol in Lansing, Mich. GOP Secretary of State Ruth Johnson is barred from seeking a third term. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and Grot. (AP Photo/David Eggert, File)

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FILE - Marian Sheridan, of West Bloomfield, holds two different signs while participating in the protest at the post office on the failure to reduce Michigan’s tax rate Tuesday, April 18, 2017, in Novi, Mich. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and Sheridan. (David Guralnick/Detroit News via AP)

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FILE - Amy Facchinello, a Grand Blanc school board member, cheers on a parent who spoke against the county’s K-6 school mask mandate during public comment as more than 100 people pack the Harris Auditorium at a Genesee County Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, Aug. 30, 2021, at the county administration building in downtown Flint, Mich. Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and Facchinello. (Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP)

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FILE - Hank Choate, co-owner of Choate’s Belly Acres farm, introduces republican candidate for governor Rick Snyder after the pair toured the farm in Liberty Township near Cement City, Mich., Monday, Oct. 25, 2010. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged 16 Republicans Tuesday, July 18, 2023, with multiple felonies after they are alleged to have submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors despite Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory in 2020. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, Meshawn Maddock, former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and Choate. (Katie Rausch/Jackson Citizen Patriot via AP, File)

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s attorney general filed felony charges Tuesday against 16 Republicans who acted as fake electors for then-President Donald Trump in 2020, accusing them of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced Tuesday that all 16 people would face eight criminal charges, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. The top charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

The group includes the head of the Republican National Committee’s chapter in Michigan, Kathy Berden, as well as the former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, Meshawn Maddock, and Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot.

In seven battleground states, including Michigan, supporters of Trump signed certificates that falsely stated he won their states, not Biden. The fake certificates were ignored, but the attempt has been subject to investigations, including by the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“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,” Nessel said in a statement.

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The 16 individuals are set to appear for arraignment in Ingham County at a date provided to each by the court, according to Nessel’s office.

Phone and email messages seeking comment Tuesday from several of the people charged were not immediately returned.

One of those charged, John Haggard, 82, of Charlevoix, told The Detroit News on Tuesday that he he didn’t believe he did anything wrong.

“Did I do anything illegal? No,” Haggard said.

GOP state Sen. Ed McBroom, who chaired a GOP-led Senate panel to investigate Michigan’s 2020 presidential election that found no wrongdoing, said he previously spoke with one of the fake electors. It was clear, McBroom said, that the effort was organized by “people who put themselves in a position of authority and posing themselves as the ones who knew what they were doing.”

“They were wrong,” McBroom told The Associated Press. “And other people followed them when they shouldn’t have.”

Berden and Mayra Rodriguez, a Michigan lawyer who was also charged Tuesday, were both questioned by congressional investigators as part of the U.S. House panel’s investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In January of last year, Nessel asked federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into the 16 Republicans.

“Obviously this is part of a much bigger conspiracy,” she said at the time.

Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome.

False Electoral College certificates were also submitted declaring Trump the winner of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Investigations are underway in some other states that submitted fake electors, but not all.

A Georgia prosecutor investigating possible illegal meddling in the 2020 election has agreed to immunity deals with at least eight fake electors. And Arizona’s Democratic attorney general is in the very early stages of a probe. Nevada’s attorney general, also a Democrat, has said he won’t bring charges, while Wisconsin has no active investigation and the attorney general has deferred to the U.S. Justice Department.

There is no apparent investigation in Pennsylvania and former Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who is now governor, said he didn’t believe there was evidence the actions of the fake electors met the legal standards for forgery.

A group of other Trump allies in Michigan, including former GOP attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, are facing potential criminal charges related to attempts to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election.

According to documents released last year by Nessel’s office, five vote tabulators were taken from Roscommon and Missaukee counties in northern Michigan, and Barry County in western Michigan. The tabulators were subsequently broken into and “tests” were performed on the equipment.

A grand jury was convened in March at the request of a special prosecutor to consider indictments, according to court records. The special prosecutor, D.J. Hilson, wrote in May in a court document that “a charging decision is ready to be made.”