CNN
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Sixteen bogus voters who signed certificates falsely claiming President Donald Trump won Michigan in the 2020 election have been charged with multiple felonies, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday.
This is the first time any of the bogus voters have been charged with a crime related to the scheme, versions of which occurred in several states.
The 16 people were each charged with eight felonies: two counts of forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit falsification, two counts of falsification of election law, one count of conspiracy to commit falsification of election law, one count of publishing a false record and one counting of conspiring to publish a counterfeit record.
The group of fake Michigan voters includes state and current GOP officials, the Republican National Committee member, a sitting mayor, a school board member and Trump supporters who were the plaintiffs in a frivolous lawsuit that sought to overturn lar the results of 2020.
“This plan, to reject the will of the voters and undermine democracy, was fraudulent and without legal basis,” Nessel said in a video released Tuesday.
Nessel, a Democrat, initially referred the matter to federal prosecutors at the Justice Department, but reopened the state investigation in January. Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith is also actively investigating the fraudulent voter conspiracy, and some fraudulent voters have testified before his grand jury.
CNN has reached out to the defendants for comment.
Michigan was one of seven battleground states where the Trump campaign introduced “fake voter” lists as part of its plan to undermine the Electoral College process and potentially disrupt congressional certification of 2020 election results on January 6, 2021.
The 16 fake Michigan GOP electors gathered in Lansing on December 14, 2020 and signed certificates falsely proclaiming that Trump won the state and that they were the legitimate electors. They were turned away by police when they tried to enter the statehouse to deliver papers, according to videos of the interaction, which took place as the actual group of Democratic voters gathered inside the building . President Joe Biden defeated Trump by just over 154,000 votes in the 2020 election.
According to the Trump campaign, these were “alternate” voters who could have somehow replaced Biden voters when Congress counted the electoral votes on January 6, 2021, giving Trump a second term. However, a wide range of legal experts, including many within the White House and the Trump campaign, thought this plan was unconstitutional and possibly illegal.
The defendants are former Michigan GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock; current Michigan GOP Vice Chair Marian Sheridan; RNC Committee Member Kathy Berden; Wyoming, Michigan Mayor Kent Vanderwood; Stanley Grot, Shelby Township Clerk; Grand Blanc School Board Member Amy Facchinello; local GOP officials Rose Rook and Mari-Ann Henry; pro-Trump plaintiffs John Haggard and Timothy King; failed Republican candidates Clifford Frost and Michele Lundgren; as well as Hank Choate, James Renner, Mayra Rodriguez and Ken Thompson.
CNN previously reported that Trump campaign officials, led by former president Rudy Giuliani’s lawyer, oversaw efforts to file false voter rolls in seven key states, including Michigan.
An audio recording obtained by CNN early last year captured one of the now-indicted Michigan fake voters who Trump’s campaign boasted ran the entire operation.
“We fought to seat voters. The Trump campaign asked us to do it,” Meshawn Maddock, then co-chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said at a public event at the time that was organized by the conservative group Stand Up Michigan , according to the recording.
The Jan. 6 House committee uncovered evidence that Trump was aware of the plan and that he spoke directly to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who is from Michigan, about it. He testified that Trump and his allies told him the electorate plan was important, and that the RNC later helped the Trump campaign assemble slates of GOP electors.
Federal investigators from the special counsel’s office have questioned key witnesses in their separate investigation into the role of top Trump officials in the fraudulent voter scheme, CNN reported.
In the video released Tuesday along with the charges, Nessel again pushed back against accusations that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, saying the election in his state “was procedurally the same as in every previous modern presidential election.”
“These defendants could have believed the now long-debunked myths of vote tampering or vote dumping,” Nessel said. “They may have felt compelled to follow the call to action of a president to whom they owed allegiance. They may even have genuinely believed it was their patriotic duty.”
He continued, “But none of these reasons or sentiments provide legal justification for violating the law and upending our Constitution and our nation’s traditions of representative government, self-determination, and government by the people.”
Nessel also said his office will continue to investigate efforts to nullify the 2020 election and “has not ruled out possible charges against additional defendants.” It also anticipated the attacks that are sure to come from Trump allies, who may claim the accusations are politically motivated.
“There will be those who claim that these charges are political in nature. But when there is overwhelming evidence of guilt with regard to multiple crimes, the most political act I could do as a prosecutor would be to take no action,” Nessel said.
Michigan’s top elections official, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, praised the charges Tuesday, telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “AC360” that they are a “strong and bold statement” that is “rooted in fact and the law”.
“We hope, and I hope, that this will have a deterrent effect on any plans that are in the works,” Benson continued, heading into the 2024 election.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated with the correct spelling of voter Mari-Ann Henry’s fake name.
