Michigan Charges Sixteen Fake Electors in Pro-Trump Scheme to Overturn Election Result — They Face Years in Prison

Sixteen so-called fake electors were charged on Tuesday by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) over their role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in that state — and they all face serious prison sentences if convicted.

The fake electors signed certificates wrongly claiming that then President Donald Trump had won Michigan and were ready to cast their electoral votes for the president despite Joe Biden winning the state by over 150,000 votes. Nessel spoke to the public to announce the charges and declared, “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,” she added. “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,” she continued in her statement, video of which her office shared in a lengthy Twitter thread.

Nessel’s office also laid out the charges and listed the accused in a press release on Tuesday evening. “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, adding:

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.

The statement also lists what each defendant has been charged with and the sentencing guidance:

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.

This is a developing story and has been updated.