LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced charges Tuesday against 16 Michigan residents in a "false electors scheme" in the 2020 presidential election.
The charges stem from an alleged conspiracy to award electoral votes from the State of Michigan to President Donald Trump, despite the state being won by President Joe Biden.
“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.
"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,” Nessel added.
A total of 16 Michiganders were charged:
- Kathy Berden, 70, of Snover
- William (Hank) Choate, 72, of Cement City
- Amy Facchinello, 55, of Grand Blanc
- Clifford Frost, 75, of Warren
- Stanley Grot, 71, of Shelby Township
- John Haggard, 82, of Charlevoix
- Mary-Ann Henry, 65, of Brighton
- Timothy King, 56, of Ypsilanti
- Michele Lundgren, 73, of Detroit
- Meshawn Maddock, 55, of Milford
- James Renner, 76, of Lansing
- Mayra Rodriguez, 64, of Grosse Pointe Farms
- Rose Rook, 81, of Paw Paw
- Marian Sheridan, 69, of West Bloomfield
- Ken Thompson, 68, of Orleans
- Kent Vanderwood, 69, of Wyoming
Notable people from the group include the current Mayor of Wyoming, Kent Vanderwood, former Van Buren County Chair, Rose Rook, and former Michigan GOP Chair, Meshawn Maddock.
13 ON YOUR SIDE knocked on the door of Wyoming Mayor Kent Vanderwood. He declined to comment.
The City of Wyoming provided 13 ON YOUR SIDE with a statement Monday afternoon:
"We are aware of the charges against Kent Vanderwood. These actions did not take place in his capacity as a city official. With any charges, there is a legal process that needs to be followed."
13 ON YOUR SIDE called Rose Rook of Paw Paw but she decline to comment.
All those listed above are facing the following charges:
- One count of Conspiracy to Commit Forgery, a 14-year felony,
- Two counts of Forgery, a 14-year felony,
- One count of Conspiracy to Commit Uttering and Publishing, a 14-year felony,
- One count of Uttering and Publishing, a 14-year felony,
- One count of Conspiracy to Commit Election Law Forgery, a 5-year felony, and,
- Two counts of Election Law Forgery, a 5-year felony.
It is alleged that the defendants met secretly in the basement of the Michigan Republican Party headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed multiple certificates saying 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 says that the alleged false electors plotted to "reject the will of the voters and undermine democracy" by casting the state's electoral votes for President Donald Trump despite him losing the popular vote in the state by over 150,000 votes.
The Michigan Office of the Attorney General intends to prove that the defendants knowingly attempted to conspire to defraud the 2020 election.
In a statement made on Monday, Nessel said that "These defendants may have believed the now long-debunked myths of vote tampering or ballot dumps. They may have felt compelled to follow the call to action from a President they held fealty to. They may have even genuinely believed that this was their patriotic duty. But none of those reasons or feelings provide legal justification to violate the law and upend our constitution and our nation’s traditions of representative government, self-determination, and a government by the people."
The documents were then allegedly sent to the United States Senate and National Archives in an attempt to award the electoral votes from Michigan to the candidate of their choosing.
“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,” Nessel continued.
“Every serious challenge to the election had been denied, dismissed, or otherwise rejected by the time the false electors convened. There was no legitimate legal avenue or plausible use of such a document or an alternative slate of electors. There was only the desperate effort of these defendants, who we have charged with deliberately attempting to interfere with and overturn our free and fair election process, and along with it, the will of millions of Michigan voters. That the effort failed and democracy prevailed does not erase the crimes of those who enacted the false electors plot.”
The Michigan Department of Attorney General says that they have not ruled out more charges against additional defendants.
All of the defendants will appear at the 54-A District Court in Ingham County for individual arraignments. No date for the arraignments has been set.
You can read the charging documents here:
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