Law professor and legal expert Ryan Goodman joined CNN on Tuesday night to discuss the indictment of sixteen pro-Trump fake electors in Michigan earlier in the day.
Goodman was part of a panel discussing the indictment with anchor Erin Burnett and was asked to weigh in on the case, which he called “open and shut.”
“Some of the evidence in Michigan that the attorney general points to is language on the fake elector slate that was submitted to Congress,” began Burnett, explaining:
So they submit this to Congress. And in that you saw something very important. So it said, ‘We convened an organized in the state capitol.’ That’s what they’re required to do by state law. So if you’re an elector, you’re going to convene there. They said that’s what they did, but they actually met at the Republican state headquarters, according to the January 6th Committee report, which I guess is not in the state capitol, the pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Cheeseboro pro flagged this as slightly problematic in a memo to the Trump campaign. Now, anyone watching may say, okay, this seems like a detail. It is a detail, but a detail you think matters.
“It’s a detail that matters. It mattered to the Trump campaign lawyer Kenneth Cheeseboro. And he said this is a problem. He’s mapping out in a secret memo how they can do these false electors across
And he says, Michigan, we have a problem because it’s a legal requirement that you have to convene in the state capitol. That’s why they obviously put it in their declaration that we are convened in the state capitol. And it is just a falsehood. Like they can say, oh, we thought he won, you know, Trump won the election and that’s why we did this. We thought litigation might prove…Did you think you were in the Capitol? You were not in the Capitol. You were in the basement of the GOP headquarters in Lansing. That’s where you were when you convened. It’s a false statement that they submit to state and federal authorities. That is almost a kind of open-and-shut case of forgery. It’s also a statement in the document.
“And it’s important, as you say. Right, A false statement. A false statement. That’s a lie. We’re talking about laws and lies,” Burnett concluded.
Since the indictment, many pro-Trump figures have accused Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) of trying to jail Trump supporters. Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, for example, tweeted, “They’re going after seniors who support Trump now” – noting that many of those indicted are over 65.
Nessel announced the indictments, which all carry lengthy prison sentences, during a press conference on Tuesday, saying:
These defendants are
alleged to have met covertly in the basement of the Michigan Republican Party headquarters on December 14th, and signed their names to multiple certificates stating they were the ‘duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan.’That was a lie! They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors. And each of the defendants knew it. 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.
Watch the full clip above via CNN.