The "false electors" in Michigan who sought to overturn President Biden's 2020 election victory are facing some very real criminal charges. State Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday that the 16 Republicans have each been charged with eight felonies, including conspiracy to commit election law forgery, the Detroit News reports. Nessel, a Democrat, said in a statement that the 16 "met covertly in the basement of the Michigan Republican Party headquarters" on Dec. 14, 2020 and "signed their names to multiple certificates stating they were the 'duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan.'"
The false documents claimed Trump had won the state's 16 electoral votes, but Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes, around 3%. The documents, Nessel said, were "transmitted to the United States Senate and National Archives in a coordinated effort to award the state's electoral votes to the candidate of their choosing." "The false electors' actions undermined the public's faith in the integrity of our elections," Nessel said. "My department has prosecuted numerous cases of election law violations throughout my tenure, and it would be malfeasance of the greatest magnitude if my department failed to act here in the face of overwhelming evidence of an organized effort to circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of Michigan voters in a presidential election."
The 16 people charged include Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the state GOP, and Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, reports NPR. Vance Patrick, chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party, slammed the charges as an "egregious abuse of power by a radical progressive," per the Detroit News. (More Election 2020 stories.)
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