Newly released charging documents provide fresh insights into how the Michigan attorney general built a criminal case against the fake GOP electors who tried to subvert the Electoral College process after the 2020 election.
The group of 16 Republicans were charged this week with state felonies for signing certificates falsely proclaiming that former President Donald Trump won the election in Michigan, and claiming they were the rightful presidential electors. None of defendants have entered a plea, but several have said they don’t think they did anything wrong. Arraignments in the case are scheduled for August 10 in Lansing.
Investigators interviewed several Michigan Republican Party officials who were present when the group met at GOP’s state headquarters in Lansing to sign the certificates on December 14, 2020, according to an affidavit filed by an investigator from the Michigan attorney general’s office.
“False electors were told no recording equipment was permitted inside. They asked the candidates to surrender their cell phones to prevent recording of the incident,” the investigator wrote in the filings, describing what he learned from interviews with Michigan GOP officials.
Prosecutors also got a search warrant for the phone of Republican National Committee member Kathy Berden, who served as a fake elector. The filings cite Berden’s text messages from 2020 with another fake elector, complaining about the social media postings of a third fake elector.
A forensic scientist with the Michigan State Police also scrutinized the signatures on a fake election certificate, comparing them to the “known signatures” for the fake electors. The forensic specialist “confirmed” that the signatures were accurate, investigators said in court filings.
Investigators tried to demonstrate in the charging documents that the fake electors…
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