Michigan attorney general charges fake Trump electors over alleged 2020 election crimes

Michigan’s attorney general on Tuesday criminally charged 16 so-called “fake electors” for former President Donald Trump, accusing them of a fraudulent effort to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory in the state’s 2020 election.

The 16 people each face eight charges, including conspiracy, election law forgery, and uttering and publishing, state Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a video announcement.

Nessel called the alleged plan a “desperate effort” to “undermine democracy.” Several of the accused are active in Republican politics.

Nessel has not ruled out potential criminal charges against additional defendants, her office said.

The case is the first time that any members of fake Electoral College slates for Trump have been criminally charged.

Nessel’s announcement also came hours after Trump said that Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith has designated him a target in a federal criminal probe of attempts to undo the ex-president’s loss in 2020.

Smith’s investigation is focused on, among other things, the attempted use of fake Electoral College slates to thwart Biden’s victory.

On Dec. 14, 2020, weeks after Biden defeated Trump by more than 154,000 votes in Michigan, the defendants met covertly in the basement of the state GOP headquarters and signed documents claiming to be the legally qualified electors for the state in the Electoral College, according to Nessel.

“That was a lie,” Nessel said. “They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it.”

After that meeting, “some of the false electors attempted to enter the state Capitol and deliver their fabricated electoral votes to the Senate floor, but were turned away,” she said.

The bogus electoral documents were then sent…