Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Tuesday that she has filed charges against 16 people who signed paperwork falsely claiming that President Donald Trump had won the 2020 election as part of a scheme to overturn the results.
The 16 people being charged in Michigan allegedly met in the basement of the state’s Republican Party headquarters and signed multiple certificates claiming 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 remarks. “That was a lie. They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it,” she continued.
Some of the electors attempted to deliver these false documents to the state Senate, but were turned away, she said; the documents were later sent to the U.S. Senate and the National Archives “with the intent that Vice President Pence would overturn the results of the election, using the false electoral slate. Nessel said the “false electors” are being charged with eight felony counts each, including forgery.
Each of the 16 electors is charged with eight felonies: two counts of election law forgery, two counts of forgery, uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and conspiracy to commit forgery.
Conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, which carry the steepest of penalties, are both punishable by up to 14 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.
The conspiracy charges allege the defendants worked with Berden, Maddock and others to falsely make a public record, the certificate of votes of the 2020 electors from Michigan.
