8 Trump Electors in Battleground States Are Facing Felony Charges in Connection With 2020 Fake Electors Scheme: Report
Jake May/The Flint Journal via AP, File
Several people who served as fake electors in the scheme to overturn the 2020 election may be electors in the 2024 election, despite the fact that they’re facing felony charges.
Politico reported on Monday that across seven battleground states, eight of the 93 prospective Republican electors are facing criminal charges for their role in the scheme orchestrated by former President Donald Trump’s campaign. Some of them continue to push the lie that Trump won the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden. Politico wrote:
Rather than being punished or shunted aside for their role in an attempt to overturn a democratic election, they’ve been elevated. The GOP has rewarded those accused of felony crimes with a return to the coveted position they stand accused of abusing four years ago.
Despite the sweeping losses election deniers have suffered at the ballot box, rejection of the last presidential outcome continues to be a mainstream belief among GOP leaders within the states. A significant share of these electors come from within the official state party apparatuses, including party chairs from Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.
“It would appear that the party leadership in the states where there are fraudulent electors serving as electors again are not taking seriously things like the criminal charges that have been brought against these fraudulent electors,” said Mary McCord, a Georgetown law professor and executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.
Six of the eight people facing felony charges are in Michigan, where Biden won by more than 150,000 votes. Regardless of that outcome, John Haggard, Hank Choate, Timothy King, Meshawn Maddock, Amy Facchinello, and Marian Sheridan — according to charging documents — signed fake Electoral College certificates to try and subvert the legitimate results, “claiming the state’s electoral votes went to Donald Trump.” All six of them are possibly set to return as electors, chosen by Michigan’s Republican party.
The other two fake electors charged with felonies are in Nevada — Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald and Clark County Chair Jesse Law.
All of those fake electors charged with felonies have pleaded not guilty.
Amy Tarkanian, the former Nevada GOP chair who is now an outspoken opponent of Trump, said that the party leadership was “filled with grifters.” She added: “These people continued to peddle and push not misinformation, which is accidental, but disinformation, which is intentional.”
Several people who were involved in the fake elector scheme made deals to cooperate with prosecutors. Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis was originally charged for her role in trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona, but those charges were dropped in exchange for her cooperation. In Georgia, where Trump was charged alongside 18 co-defendants for trying to overturn that state’s election results, several fake electors pointed to Trump and his campaign lawyers for convincing them to sign false documents.
Many of the people who served as fake electors claimed that they participated believing they were carrying out a legitimate federal government duty and did not knowingly commit fraud.
