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      Fury at Michigan officials charged in 2020 false electors scheme: ‘This isn’t who we are’

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      When the news broke in 2020 that 16 Republicans in Michigan had signed a certificate falsely claiming to be electors for Donald Trump, Rosemary Herweyer was dismayed to find a prominent local politician, Kent Vanderwood, listed among the signatories.“His willingness to sign a fake elector paper and try to send that in and negate Michigan’s actual vote speaks to his integrity,” Herweyer said of Vanderwood, who was then a member of the Wyoming, Michigan, city council. “How can I trust anything he does?”Vanderwood, who served on the city council for 16 years before being elected mayor of the city in 2022, now faces eight felony charges for his role as a false elector during the 2020 presidential election. Fifteen other Republicans, including the former co-chair of the Michigan GOP, have also been criminally charged.Since Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, announced the charges on 18 July – making the state the first to prosecute a full slate of false electors involved in the seven-state scheme – voters and good government groups have begun a push for elected officials involved to resign. Across the state, a mayor, a school board member and a township clerk whose role includes administering elections have each been arraigned and have pleaded not guilty, and in each community, constituents are pushing for accountability.“Over 2 million people voted for Joe Biden in Michigan, and Stan Grot decided that our votes didn’t matter,” said Alisa Diez, a Democratic party activist in Shelby Township, where Stanley Grot, one of the 16 false electors, currently serves as township clerk.After Grot was charged, the state stripped him of his ability to administer elections, but he remains in office.At a packed public meeting of the township board of trustees on 15 August, residents questioned Grot’s ability to serve as clerk, given the pending charges and the fact that he can no longer perform a key function of his post. “What, we pay him for a job he can’t do?” said Diez, who organized a protest at the meeting demanding Grot’s resignation. “It’s ridiculous.”Grot’s lawyer, Derek Wilczynski, said in a statement that there “is no merit to the charges alleged against Mr Grot”, and called the secretary of state’s directive that Grot pause his election-related responsibilities “improper”. Wilczynski added in an email to the Guardian that Grot “does not intend to resign his position as Township Clerk”.In a statement, Vanderwood’s attorney wrote that the mayor “had no intent to defraud anyone” when he signed his name as an elector in 2020 and added that Vanderwood “will not resign or voluntarily recuse himself from the important and completely unrelated work he is required to perform as the duly-elected Mayor of the City of Wyoming”.In Grand Blanc, a small city south of Flint, Michigan, Amy Facchinello, a school board member who in 2021 generated outrage for promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory on social media and now faces charges for her participation in forging the false electors’ certificate, could face a recall. On 14 August, the Genesee county elections commission approved a filing to recall Facchinello – meaning residents can begin to collect signatures to petition for an election.“Eight felony charges aren’t a good look for a school board member,” said Michelle Ryder, who filed the recall language. Ryder, who has two children in the school district, said school board meetings became chaotic and politicized during the pandemic, with Facchinello’s radical beliefs often a focal point.Ryder said she hoped the felony charges would inspire residents to recall Facchinello, whose term will otherwise end in 2026. “This is an opportunity for our community to say ‘this isn’t who we are,’” said Ryder.Facchinello and her attorney did not respond to a request for comment.Vanderwood, Grot, Facchinello and the 13 others charged met “covertly” in the basement of the Michigan Republican party headquarters in December 2020 to sign paperwork falsely claiming to be official electors, Nessel said, calling the action “an attempt to outmaneuver and circumvent the longstanding electoral college process”.The Michigan plan formed part of a broader push by Trump and his inner circle to overturn the results of the 2020 election by delivering alternate slates of electors for Trump and Pence in seven swing states. The multistate effort has emerged as a critical element in the prosecution of the former president and his allies, with several of Georgia’s false electors now facing charges in Fulton county.At least 17 fake electors across the US currently serve in public office, including the Arizona state senator Anthony Kern, Georgia’s lieutenant governor, Burt Jones and Robert Spindell, a member of the Wisconsin elections commission. The prosecutions in Michigan and Georgia have brought increased scrutiny on the false electors, and Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, has confirmed her office is investigating the slate of fake electors there.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionA coalition of activists and progressive organizers from groups including the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, All Voting Is Local Michigan, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and the Michigan People’s Campaign are supporting efforts in Wyoming and Shelby Township to oust their elected officials who served as fake electors. In letters to the Wyoming city council and the Shelby Township board of trustees, the advocates, referring to themselves as the Democracy Coalition, called on the local governments to address the issue of the false electors.The charges, the group wrote, “raise serious concerns” about the officials’ ability to fulfill their responsibilities “in a manner that upholds the values and principles an elected official should abide by”.Daniel Rivera, an organizer with the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and a resident of Wyoming, Michigan, said he helped get the word out before a tumultuous city council meeting on 7 August, where residents lined up to call for their mayor’s resignation. “When I saw the formal charges, that’s where I decided to really push for recruiting folks to come to the meeting and provide public comment myself,” said Rivera. “As a resident, it just raises a lot of concerns, because we deserve to trust our government.”Herweyer, who worked the polls during the 2020 presidential election and spoke at the 7 August city council meeting, said she already believed Vanderwood’s role as a false elector in 2020 disqualified him for public office when he ran for mayor in 2022. The idea that a longtime civil servant had apparently participated in the effort to overturn the presidential election upset Herweyer deeply.“It didn’t take the [attorney general] filing charges to get me upset,” said Herweyer. “I wanted him off immediately.”But while some individuals like Herweyer were bothered by the news about Vanderwood back in 2020, the issue didn’t get much local play until the charges dropped.Ivan Diaz, a Kent county commissioner whose district includes parts of Wyoming, said the false electors news wasn’t a major campaign talking point during Vanderwood’s mayoral race, and that he was “pleasantly surprised” when residents flooded the city council meeting to demand the mayor’s resignation.“Once there were actual charges, I think it kind of just elevated to a situation where it’s [in] everybody’s awareness,” he said.Residents cannot launch a recall until Vanderwood’s first year in office concludes in December.“At that point, he’ll probably very much be in danger of being recalled,” said Diaz.
      This article was amended on 23 August 2023 to correct a name. More

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      Michigan Republicans Charged in False Elector Scheme Appear in Court

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      The hearing in state court came in the same week that former President Donald J. Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges connected to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Two Michigan Republicans charged with purporting to be electors for President Donald J. Trump in 2020 appeared before a state judge on Friday, adding to a flurry of court action this week tied to efforts to overturn the last presidential election.The hearings for the two pro-Trump electors — Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and Mari-Ann Henry, who was active in Republican politics in suburban Detroit — came a day after the former president pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges in federal court in Washington. Earlier in the week, a grand jury in another part of Michigan indicted prominent Republicans on charges connected to improper access to voting machines.The hearing on Friday was largely procedural. Judge Kristen D. Simmons of the State District Court in Lansing agreed to give defense lawyers until October to review “voluminous” discovery materials in the felony case.From her small wood-paneled courtroom in Lansing City Hall, across the street from the State Capitol, Judge Simmons spoke over a video conference link with Ms. Maddock, Ms. Henry and their lawyers. She agreed to allow each defendant, who could face lengthy prison sentences if convicted, to take a trip out of state before trial.The cases against Ms. Maddock and Ms. Henry, who previously pleaded not guilty, are part of a broader prosecution of 16 purported Trump electors in Michigan that was announced last month by the state attorney general, Dana Nessel, a Democrat.“They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it,” Ms. Nessel said in announcing the charges. “They carried out these actions with the hope and belief that the electoral votes of Michigan’s 2020 election would be awarded to the candidate of their choosing instead of the candidate that Michigan voters actually chose.”Though Mr. Trump carried Michigan in 2016, Joseph R. Biden Jr. won the state by roughly a three-point margin in 2020, an outcome that was crucial to his overall election victory.Other slates of false pro-Trump electors in swing states won by Mr. Biden, including Arizona and Georgia, are being investigated as part of a sprawling attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 election.Some Republicans hoped that the false-electors plan, which was led largely by lawyers close to Mr. Trump, would persuade Vice President Mike Pence to accept the slates of false electors during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, and by doing so, keep Mr. Trump in office for another term. Mr. Pence refused, even as a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol and delayed the certification of the election.On Tuesday, Mr. Trump was charged with four criminal counts tied to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election: conspiracy to violate civil rights, conspiracy to defraud the government, corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to carry out such obstruction. Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has said he was a victim of “persecution” by the Justice Department.Little was said in the Michigan hearing on Friday about the details of the case. The defendants spoke only sparingly, telling the judge they supported their lawyers’ requests to delay their next hearing.In an earlier interview with the Fox affiliate in Detroit, Ms. Maddock described the charges as politically motivated.“We know we didn’t do anything wrong,” she said. “We’re not fake electors. I was a duly elected Trump elector. There was no forgery involved.”George MacAvoy Brown, a lawyer for Ms. Henry, said in a statement that Ms. Henry, a longtime party activist in Oakland County, Mich., has been falsely accused.“The government’s claim that she attempted to subvert the will of the voters and undermine an election is spurious and unsupported by the facts,” he said.The hearing in Lansing was among the first for the defendants in the Michigan case. Ms. Nessel charged each of the electors with eight felony counts, including forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery. The defendants are accused of signing documents attesting falsely that they were Michigan’s “duly elected and qualified electors” for president and vice president.According to prosecutors, some of the Trump electors attempted to deliver the paperwork at the State Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, but were turned away. Meanwhile, the real electors who were certified by the Board of State Canvassers, and who cast their votes for Mr. Biden, met inside the building.Kirsten Noyes More

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      Matt DePerno, Trump Meddler in Michigan, Is Charged in Election Breach

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      A key figure in a multistate effort to overturn the 2020 election, Mr. DePerno lost his race for Michigan attorney general in 2022. He later finished second to lead the state’s Republican Party.Matthew DePerno, a key orchestrator of efforts to help former President Donald J. Trump try to overturn the 2020 election in Michigan and an unsuccessful candidate for state attorney general last year, was arraigned on four felony charges on Tuesday, according to documents released by D.J. Hilson, the special prosecutor handling the investigation.The charges against Mr. DePerno, which include undue possession of a voting machine and a conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to a computer or computer system, come after a nearly yearlong investigation in one of the battleground states that cemented the election of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as president.Former State Representative Daire Rendon was also charged with two crimes, including a conspiracy to illegally obtain a voting machine and false pretenses.Both Mr. DePerno and Ms. Rendon were arraigned remotely on Tuesday before Chief Judge Jeffery Matis, according to Richard Lynch, the court administrator for Oakland County’s Sixth Circuit, and remained free on bond.The charges were first reported by The Detroit News.Mr. DePerno denied any wrongdoing and said that his efforts “uncovered significant security flaws” in a statement from his lawyer, Paul Stablein.“He maintains his innocence and firmly believes that these charges are not based upon any actual truth and are motivated primarily by politics rather than evidence,” Mr. Stablein said.The criminal inquiry in Michigan has largely been overshadowed by developments in Georgia, where a grand jury is weighing charges against Mr. Trump for trying to subvert the election, but both are part of the ongoing reckoning over the conspiracy theories about election machines promoted by Mr. Trump and his allies.The efforts to legitimize the falsehoods and conspiracy theories promoted widely by Mr. Trump and his allies continued long after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and after Mr. Biden took office. In Arizona, such efforts included the discredited election audit of Maricopa County led by Republicans in the state legislature.In a statement, Mr. Hilson said, “Although our office made no recommendations to the grand jury as to whether an indictment should be issued or not, we support the grand jury’s decision and we will prosecute each of the cases as they have directed in the sole interests of justice.”Dana Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general and a Democrat who went on to defeat Mr. DePerno in the November election, has not been involved in the investigation since the appointment of a special prosecutor in August last year. In a statement on Tuesday, Ms. Nessel said that the allegations “caused undeniable harm to our democracy” and issued a warning for the future.“The 2024 presidential election will soon be upon us. The lies espoused by attorneys involved in this matter, and those who worked in concert with them across the nation, wreaked havoc and sowed distrust within our democratic institutions and processes,” Ms. Nessel said. “We hope for swift justice in the courts.”The charges stemmed from a bizarre plot hatched by a group of conservative activists in early 2021 to pick apart voting machines in at least three Michigan counties, in some cases taking them to hotels and Airbnb rentals as they hunted for evidence of election fraud.In the weeks after the 2020 election, he drew widespread attention and the admiration of Mr. Trump when he filed a lawsuit challenging the vote tallies in Antrim County, a rural area in Northern Michigan where a minor clerical error fueled conspiracy theories.He falsely claimed that voting machines there had been rigged, a premise that was rejected as “idiotic” by William P. Barr, an attorney general under Mr. Trump, and “demonstrably false” by Republicans in the Michigan Senate.Mr. Hilson, the prosecutor in Muskegon County appointed as special prosecutor, had initially delayed bringing charges, asking a state judge to determine whether it was against state law to take possession of a voting machine without the secretary of state’s permission or a court order. A judge determined last month that doing so was against the law, clearing the way for charges.Democrats swept the governor’s race and other statewide contests last fall, in addition to flipping the full Legislature for the first time in decades. Mr. DePerno, who was endorsed by Mr. Trump, lost the attorney general’s race by eight percentage points.This year, Mr. DePerno had been a front-runner to lead the Michigan Republican Party after its disappointing showing in last year’s midterm election, but he finished second to another election-denier: Kristina Karamo.In his campaign to lead the G.O.P. in Michigan, Mr. DePerno had vowed to pack the party’s leadership ranks with Trump loyalists, close primaries to just Republicans and ratchet up the distribution of absentee ballot applications to party members — despite what he said was lingering opposition to voting by mail within the party’s ranks.His candidacy was supported by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow chief executive who has spread conspiracy theories about election fraud and appeared at a fund-raising reception for Mr. DePerno in Lansing on the night before the chairmanship vote.Mr. DePerno lost to Ms. Karamo after three rounds of balloting at the state party convention, a process that was slowed for several hours by the use of paper ballots and hand counting.Danny Hakim More

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      Trump’s Conspirators Are Facing the Music, Finally

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      We’ve reached a turning point in the effort to ensure there are consequences for those who deliberately attempt to undermine our democracy: Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, charged 16 Republican leaders in her state on Tuesday for their role as fake electors working to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The charges, coming on the heels of news that the special counsel Jack Smith has informed Donald Trump that he’s a target of the Department of Justice’s investigation into the Capitol riot, mean we are witnessing a new and necessary phase in this quest for accountability, one in which the federal and state wheels of justice work to hold people accountable not only for the violence on Jan. 6, but also for what got us there: the alleged scheme to interfere with the transfer of power.The charges in Michigan will surely meet criticism on all sides. Some will say the case is not broad or bold enough, that Mr. Trump and the other alleged national ringleaders should have been charged as well. Others will say Ms. Nessel cast too wide a net, pulling in low-level party functionaries who did not know better. We think those critiques are misconceived. Ms. Nessel got it just right, prosecuting crimes firmly within her jurisdiction, while opening the way for federal authorities to net even bigger fish.Ms. Nessel brought the same eight counts against all 16 defendants. The offenses include conspiracy to commit forgery, since the defendants are accused of signing documents stating they were the qualified electors (they were not), and publishing forged documents by circulating these materials to federal and state authorities. On paper, the penalties for the offenses range from five to 14 years, but sentencing in this case would presumably be lower than that maximum.Until now there have been no charges centered on the fake electors plot. For that reason alone, Michigan’s action brings a sense of needed accountability for those who fanned the rioters’ passions leading up to Jan. 6 by spinning a false narrative about a stolen election.Michigan saw some of the most outrageous fake electoral certificates to emerge during the period leading up to the Capitol riot. Unlike the fake certificates in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, the Michigan documents did not include a disclaimer that they were to be used only in the case of litigation. What’s more, the documents contained more outright false statements than simply declaring that the signers were the lawful electors of the winning candidate.For example, they state that the electors “convened and organized in the State Capitol,” when, according to the attorney general, they were hidden away in the basement of the state Republican headquarters. (It seems likely that the fake electors included this lie because Michigan law requires presidential electors to meet in the Capitol — a requirement and legal problem that a Trump campaign legal adviser, Kenneth Chesebro, had flagged in his confidential memorandum setting out the scheme.)In proving these cases, establishing intent will be key. Here, there are several indicators that the defendants may have been aware of the illicit nature of their gathering. According to congressional testimony from the state Republican Party’s chairwoman at the time, Laura Cox, the group originally planned to meet inside the Capitol and hide overnight, so they could vote in the building the following day. Ms. Cox said she told a lawyer working with the Trump campaign and supposedly organizing the fake electors “in no uncertain terms that that was insane and inappropriate,” and “a very, very bad idea and potentially illegal.”As she put it, Ms. Cox was “very uncomfortable” with facilitating a meeting of the fake elector group, and said so at the time in accord with her lawyers’ opinion. Ms. Cox even urged the group to draft a significantly more measured document simply “stating that if perhaps something were to happen in the courts, they were willing and able to serve as electors from Michigan for Donald Trump.” Her advice was not followed.At the time the fake electors met to allegedly forge their documents, they should have been aware that state officials had certified the election results for Joe Biden — it was national and state news. By that point, there was no prospect of changing that outcome through either litigation or legislative action. On the day prosecutors say the fake electors met, two of the most powerful Republicans in the state acknowledged as much. Mike Shirkey, the majority leader in the State Senate, and Lee Chatfield, the House speaker, both issued statements declaring the presidential race over. Mr. Shirkey said that Michigan’s “Democratic slate of electors should be able to proceed with their duty” without the threat of harassment or violence.The fake electors were told they were not allowed to bring their phones into the meeting at the Republican headquarters that day, according to testimony one of them gave congressional investigators. They were instructed to maintain secrecy and not to share any details about what was occurring. That secrecy suggests that they knew what they were doing was wrong.Michigan’s former secretary of state, Terri Lynn Land, who had been designated a Trump elector, declined to participate in the proceedings, saying, according to Ms. Cox’s testimony, she was not comfortable doing so.With these facts, it would have been unthinkable for the state attorney general to choose not to prosecute the Michigan 16. Ms. Nessel’s office has regularly brought prosecutions, some of them against her fellow Democrats, centered on false documents in connection with elections. The case of the fake electors is far more egregious than most of those other cases: The defendants here were politically engaged individuals who should have been aware of the election results, as well as the flat rejection by the courts and Michigan Legislature of the Trump campaign’s claims of voter fraud.To be sure, some critics of the case may still think that the Michigan attorney general should have gone after Mr. Trump and his top lieutenants, who helped organize the false electors. But prosecutors have a responsibility first to pursue those individuals within their jurisdiction. By focusing solely on the figures who undertook their acts in Michigan, Ms. Nessel is wisely insulating her case against charges that she overreached, exceeding her jurisdiction.Of course, broader prosecutions may still be justified. Reporting indicates that the district attorney for Fulton County, Ga., Fani Willis, may be considering a different kind of wide-ranging case, involving state RICO crimes. Unlike the Michigan prosecution, her case may focus on Mr. Trump’s direct efforts to pressure state election officials — efforts that were caught on tape — and Rudy Giuliani’s attempt to provide false statements of election fraud to state officials.If broad-based indictments ultimately emerge out of Georgia, and are supported by the facts and appropriate law, then we would welcome it. That is part of the genius of American democracy: The states, which are responsible for running our elections, are laboratories of both democracy and of accountability.Ms. Nessel’s case also leaves a clear lane for Mr. Smith, the special counsel. She has avoided charging high-level national individuals whom Mr. Smith is apparently investigating. If anything, her case provides greater foundation for Mr. Smith to act, and he now seems to be following through. If Ms. Nessel can move against these individuals in Michigan, Mr. Smith can and should do the same against the ringleaders. Together, they can hold both the foot soldiers and their organizers accountable for their actions leading up to the Capitol riot.Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, was special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for the first impeachment and trial of Donald Trump. Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University, is a co-editor in chief of the Just Security website.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      Michigan Charges 16 in False Elector Scheme to Overturn Trump’s 2020 Loss

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      The Michigan attorney general announced felony charges on Tuesday against 16 Republicans for falsely portraying themselves as electors from the state in an effort to overturn Donald J. Trump’s 2020 defeat there.Each of the defendants was charged with eight felony counts, including forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery, on accusation that they had signed documents attesting falsely that they were Michigan’s “duly elected and qualified electors” for president and vice president.“They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it,” Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said in announcing the charges. “They carried out these actions with the hope and belief that the electoral votes of Michigan’s 2020 election would be awarded to the candidate of their choosing instead of the candidate that Michigan voters actually chose.”The charges, the first against false electors in a sprawling scheme to hand the electoral votes of swing states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. to Mr. Trump, add to the rapidly developing legal peril for Mr. Trump and those who helped him try to overturn the results of the election. They came the same day that Mr. Trump said federal prosecutors had told him that he is a target of their investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and other schemes he and his allies used to try to maintain power.Those charged in Michigan included Meshawn Maddock, 55, who went on to serve for a time as the co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. Ms. Maddock, who has close ties to former President Donald J. Trump and is married to Matt Maddock, a state representative, accused Ms. Nessel of “a personal vendetta.”“This is part of a national coordinated” effort to stop Mr. Trump, she added.Wright Blake, a lawyer representing Mayra Rodriguez, 64, another elector who is a lawyer, said in an interview: “I’m very disappointed in the attorney general’s office. This is all political, obviously. If they want to charge my client, how come they didn’t charge Trump and the Trump lawyers that he sent here to discuss with the delegates what to do?”While a similar investigation in Atlanta has pulled in witnesses from across the country and has led to legal battles with Mr. Trump himself, thus far the Michigan inquiry has focused on residents of the state. It is not clear whether that will remain the case.“This remains an ongoing investigation, and our department has not ruled out potential charges against additional defendants,” Ms. Nessel said Tuesday of her inquiry.Others among the electors who were charged included Kathy Berden, 70, a member of the Republican National Committee, and Marian Sheridan, 69, the state party’s grass-roots vice chair. Neither responded to requests for comment.Documents released Tuesday by Ms. Nessel’s office laid out a scheme in which many of the Trump electors convened at the Republican Party state headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, after being turned away from the State Capitol. The real electors who were certified by the Board of State Canvassers did meet at the Capitol, as required by law. Yet the Republican group falsely claimed they were the rightful electors and had met at the Capitol.Michigan is one of three states, along with Georgia and Arizona, where there are ongoing investigations relating to the use of false electors by the Trump team in 2020. Another investigation in Michigan, being conducted by a special prosecutor, concerns a network of right-wing activists — including Matthew DePerno, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully against Ms. Nessel last year — who are suspected of breaching voting machines in search of evidence of election fraud.In total, allies of Mr. Trump pushed to convene slates of fake electors in seven swing states that Mr. Biden won. The plan was to create the illusion of a dispute over which slates — the fake Trump ones or the real Biden ones — were legitimate, and to have members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence certify the fake Trump slates, thus handing the election to Mr. Trump in defiance of the will of voters.Ms. Nessel began investigating the matter in early 2021, but referred it to the Justice Department in January 2022. She said at the time that while there were grounds to bring criminal charges, because there appeared to be “a coordinated effort between the Republican parties in various different states, we think this is a matter that is best investigated and potentially prosecuted by the feds.”A few months later, she posted on Twitter: “If we don’t hold the people involved in the alternate elector scheme accountable, there is literally nothing to stop them from doing this again because there will have been no repercussions for it.”But by January of this year, federal prosecutors had taken no apparent action. So Ms. Nessel announced that “we are reopening our investigation, because I don’t know what the federal government plans to do.”In recent weeks, investigators have collected evidence and interviewed witnesses who have been affiliated with the state party.Since Ms. Nessel reopened her investigation, federal prosecutors have become increasingly active in Michigan and appear to be treading similar ground. A number of elections officials and lawmakers — including the secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson — have reportedly been interviewed in recent months by federal prosecutors.Both the federal and Michigan investigations are part of a reckoning over the conspiracy theories Mr. Trump and his allies have promoted about the election. More

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      Sixteen people charged in Michigan 2020 false elector scheme

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      Sixteen people who signed paperwork falsely claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election in Michigan have been criminally charged, Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced on Tuesday.Michigan was one of several swing states that Trump lost in 2020 in which he and his legal team convened alternate slates of electors as part of an effort to overturn the election. The Tuesday charges mark the first time any of the electors have been charged.Each of the fake electors was charged with eight felony counts, including multiple counts of forgery, a felony punishable by 14 years in prison in Michigan. The other charges include conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and election law forgery. The charges were filed in state court in Lansing, the Michigan capital.The 16 people charged include Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican party, and Kathy Berden, a national commiteewoman for the Republican National Committee. The other 14 fake electors held various connections to the state and local party.Knowing that Trump lost the election, the 16 electors met in the basement of the Michigan Republican party headquarters on 14 December 2020 – the same day the legitimate electors convened, and three weeks before Congress would meet to certify the election results on 6 January – and knowingly signed “multiple certificates” falsely proclaiming Trump the winner in their state, Nessel said in a statement. Those certificates were transmitted to the National Archives in Washington.“This plan – to reject the will of the voters and undermine democracy – was fraudulent and legally baseless,” Nessel said in recorded remarks. “The False Electors’ actions undermined the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections, and not only violated the spirit of the laws enshrining and defending our democracy but, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan and peaceably transfer power in America.“Undoubtedly, there will be those who will claim these charges are political in nature. But where there is overwhelming evidence of guilt in respect to multiple crimes, the most political act I could engage in as a prosecutor would be to take no action at all,” Nessel added.The Michigan charges come as both the justice department and the district attorney in Fulton county, Georgia, are examining fake electors as part of a broader inquiry into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump announced on Tuesday he had received a letter from the justice department saying he was a target of an investigation. Charges in Fulton county are expected sometime before the end of August.Nessel referred the fake electors to the justice department in January 2022, but reopened the case earlier this year when federal prosecutors had not brought charges, according to a person familiar with the matter.Slates of false electors were convened in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In addition to the criminal investigations into the broader scheme, there is also a civil lawsuit in Wisconsin seeking $2.4m from those who signed their names and to block them from serving as electors again.Hugo Lowell contributed reporting More

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      Michigan governor signs ‘overdue’ laws that aim to end child marriage

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      The governor of Michigan signed legislation Tuesday that aims to eventually end child marriage in that state, raising the minimum age at which one can get married to 18 years old under all circumstances.The state previously allowed 16- and 17-year-olds to wed with written permission from a parent or legal guardian. Minors under 16 were able to get married with judicial approval.But several laws signed by Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer effectively stop the practice, the Detroit Free Press reports.“Keeping Michiganders – especially young women – safe and healthy is a top priority, and these bills will take long overdue steps to protect individuals from abuse,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said in a statement to the Free Press.Whitmer signed legislation banning marriage with minors even with parental permission. Children who are married are also no longer considered emancipated, and parents and guardians can now apply for the annulment of a marriage involving a child, the Free Press added.But it was unclear when the legislation setting the minimum age to marry at 18 would take effect. That is the case after Whitmer did not sign three related bills that would have allowed the new minimum age to marry to go into effect.The bills passed Michigan’s legislature with large bipartisan support, though they drew some opposition, according to the Detroit News. Five Michigan Republicans opposed the bills in Michigan’s House. One Republican senator attempted to amend the bill to include a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, the Michigan Advance.Michigan is only the 10th state to ban child marriages, the 19th reports, citing data from Unchained At Last, a nonprofit seeking to end forced and child marriages. The practice remains legal in almost 80% of the US.Nevada has the most child marriages per capita, followed by Idaho and Arkansas, Unchained at Last data show.Almost 300,000 minors in the US were married between 2000 and 2018, with 5,259 child marriages in Michigan. The majority of child marriages are between minor girls, aged 16 and 17, and a man who is at least four years older.Fraidy Reiss, founder and executive director of Unchained at Last, has worked to pass similar bans in other states. Reiss called the ban in Michigan a “victory”.“On the one hand, it’s shocking that in the year 2023, ‘only’ 10 states have banned child marriages, but when you consider that just a few years ago child marriage was legal in all 50 states, it’s pretty significant,” Reiss said.Reiss noted that advocates have difficulty getting bans passed due to legislators not prioritizing issues involving girls.“Almost all of the children who marry in the United States are girls married to adult men,” said Reiss, adding that 95% of child marriages in Michigan were girls wed to adult men.“They’re girls. They’re not even old enough to vote. They’re not a constituency that legislators prioritize.”Reiss said that legislators are “romanticizing this human rights abuse”, given a “lack of understanding” on the issue. Some opposing the bill in Michigan described child marriage as “17-year-old high school sweethearts getting married”, he said.“We’re talking about a legal set up that allows a single parent to enter a child of any age, as young as a toddler or infant, into any marriage, without any input required from the child, and without any legal recourse for a child who doesn’t want to marry,” Reiss added.Married minors also aren’t able to enter domestic violence shelters, initiate divorce, or gain legal representation given the limited rights of children, according to Reiss.“This is a huge victory for girls in Michigan and for anyone who cares about them,” Reiss said. “This is something that was almost exclusively [affecting] girls and destroying almost every aspect of their lives.” More

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      Hill Harper, ‘Good Doctor’ Actor, Enters Senate Race in Michigan

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      Mr. Harper is challenging Representative Elissa Slotkin from the left and will have an uphill climb in a heated Democratic primary race in a 2024 presidential swing state.Hill Harper, an author and actor, on Monday entered Michigan’s 2024 Senate race, pledging to run to the left of Representative Elissa Slotkin, a moderate Democrat, in what is expected to be one of the most closely watched Democratic primary races in a 2024 presidential battleground state.Mr. Harper, a first-time candidate known for his roles on “CSI: NY” and “The Good Doctor,” began his campaign with a message focused on expanding Social Security and access to affordable health care, as well as tackling income inequality and student debt. In an interview, he said he planned to position himself as “the most progressive candidate” in the race and would work to bring jaded and unheard voters back into the Democratic fold.“It became clear to me that folks across Michigan don’t feel like they are being represented in Washington, D.C.,” he said, describing his conversations with people at farmers’ markets and union halls as he weighed his decision to run. The state’s Democratic leadership, which holds the governor’s office and both chambers of the Michigan Statehouse, he added, has “done a lot to move the state forward, but Washington is still broken.”The Democratic primary is likely to be followed by a heated general election against a tense backdrop. Donald J. Trump won this industrial Midwestern state by nearly 11,000 votes in 2016, and lost it to Joseph R. Biden Jr. by more than 150,000 votes in his 2020 re-election bid. Mr. Trump focused on the voting in Michigan in his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.As they head into the 2024 presidential cycle, Democrats will be concentrating on holding on to their midterm victories in Michigan in 2022, when protecting abortion rights galvanized the party nationwide.Mr. Harper’s supporters believe that, as a Black progressive, he will be able to draw a coalition of liberal and Black voters. His campaign could particularly resonate with Black voters in a state where the debate over race and representation has raged in some corners: The 2022 midterm election left Detroit, the nation’s largest majority Black city, without Black representation in Congress for the first time in decades.But Mr. Harper will face an uphill climb against Ms. Slotkin, a former C.I.A. analyst and three-term congresswoman who has built a track record as a seasoned campaigner and prolific fund-raiser. She has won three tough races for her House seat in a central Michigan district, which encompasses Lansing. Ms. Slotkin had more than $2.3 million cash in hand at the end of March, and is running on a platform focused on jobs and economic issues.She was the first in her party to declare her candidacy for the seat being vacated by Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, and has the solid backing of establishment Democrats at the state and national level.That hasn’t dissuaded Mr. Harper and a handful of Democrats from jumping in, including Leslie Love, a former state lawmaker, and Pamela Pugh, who serves as president of the Michigan State Board of Education.For the Republicans, Nikki Snyder, a member of the State Board of Education, and Ezra Scott, a former Berrien County commissioner, are vying for the seat. More