Most of the 16 Michigan Republicans who served as fake electors in 2020 will be arraigned Thursday and are expected to plead not guilty to the first-of-their-kind felony charges.
The group of Trump supporters were hit with state charges last month over their role in the former president’s campaign’s seven-state plan to subvert the Electoral College and overturn the 2020 election results by supplanting lawful Democratic electors with fake Republican electors.
Some of the 16 defendants have already pleaded not guilty and were released on $1,000 bond.
Each of the fake Michigan electors were charged with eight state felonies, including forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and publishing a counterfeit record. Some of their defense attorneys have already said they’ll challenge the novel case and will try to get the charges dropped. The case is unfolding in Ingham County District Court.
The defendants include current and former Michigan Republican Party officials, a member of the Republican National Committee, a mayor, a school board member and a town clerk. Some have said they were tricked into signing the fake elector certificates and didn’t intend to break the law, while others are still peddling the lie that former President Donald Trump won a second term.
Two weeks after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the state charges, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on federal charges stemming from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The sweeping indictment accused Trump of trying to “subvert the legitimate election results and change electoral votes” with the fake elector plot.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the federal indictment, which was filed in Washington, DC.
Some of the Michigan defendants have claimed Nessel, a Democrat, is wrongly targeting political…
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