LANSING, Mich. — Attorney General Dana Nessel is leveling felony charges against 16 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Donald Trump won Michigan's 2020 presidential election, launching criminal cases against top political figures inside the state GOP.
Each of the 16 electors, including former Michigan Republican Party Co-Chairwoman Meshawn Maddock and Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot, will be charged with eight felony counts, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election law forgery, according to an announcement from Nessel's office.
The revelation capped six months of investigation and produced the most serious allegations yet in Michigan over the campaign to overturn Trump's loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Biden won the state by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, but Trump and his supporters maintained false and unproven claims that fraud swung the result.
As part of the push to undermine Biden's victory, Trump supporters gathered inside the then-Michigan Republican Party headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed a certificate, claiming to cast the state's 16 electoral votes for Trump.
Eventually, the false certificate was sent to the National Archives and Congress. The document inaccurately claimed the Trump electors had met inside the Michigan Capitol. However, they hadn't. Biden's electors convened inside the Capitol, and the building was closed to others on Dec. 14, 2020.
"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," Nessel, a Democrat, said in a statement.
"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 felony complaints indicate the warrants for each of the electors were signed Thursday and Friday of last week, according to copies of the documents.
In addition to Maddock and Grot, Kathy Berden, the Republican national committeewoman from Michigan, Kent Vanderwood, the mayor of Wyoming, and Marian Sheridan, grassroots vice-chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, are also facing charges.
Each of the 16 electors is charged with eight felonies: two counts of election law forgery, two counts of forgery, uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and conspiracy to commit forgery. Conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, which carry the steepest of penalties, are both punishable by up to 14 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Vance Patrick, chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party, criticized the charges in a statement Tuesday.
"This is an egregious abuse of power by a radical progressive and continues the trend of politically motivated witch hunts, perpetrated by the left against Republican candidates and activists," Patrick said.
The conspiracy charges allege the defendants worked with Berden, Maddock and others to falsely make a public record: the certificate of votes of the 2020 electors from Michigan.
Less than an hour before Nessel's announcement, one of the Republican electors, John Haggard of Charlevoix, told The Detroit News he hadn't heard anything new about the attorney general's investigation. Haggard, 82, is among those being charged criminally, Nessel's office said.
The 16 defendants include:
Kathy Berden, 70, of Snover
William (Hank) Choate, 72, of Cement City
Amy Facchinello, 55, of Grand Blanc
Clifford Frost, 75, of Warren
Stanley Grot, 71, of Shelby Township
John Haggard, 82, of Charlevoix
Mary-Ann Henry, 65, of Brighton
Timothy King, 56, of Ypsilanti
Michele Lundgren, 73, of Detroit
Meshawn Maddock, 55, of Milford
James Renner, 76, of Lansing
Mayra Rodriguez, 64, of Grosse Pointe Farms
Rose Rook, 81, of Paw Paw
Marian Sheridan, 69, of West Bloomfield
Ken Thompson, 68, of Orleans
Kent Vanderwood, 69, of Wyoming
After initially referring the matter to federal prosecutors, in January, Nessel reopened a state-level investigation into the fake Trump electors, citing new documents released by a U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 failed attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In testimony before the committee, Laura Cox, who was chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party in 2020, said she had prepared a document for the Trump electors to sign on Dec. 14, 2020, that said they had merely participated in a ceremony and "would cast their votes" for the Republican president if given the chance.
Cox told U.S. House investigators that the intent behind the document she pushed for was to state that the Republican Trump electors were willing to serve and vote for Trump if "something were to happen in the courts" in the future to overturn the result.
However, the electors participated in an event on Dec. 14, 2020, that produced a certificate that claimed Trump had won the state's 16 electoral votes.
Michigan election law bans someone from knowingly making or publishing a false document "with the intent to defraud."
Each defendant, or their attorneys, has been notified of the charges, and the court will provide each with a date to appear in Ingham County district court for an arraignment, Nessel's office said.
"This remains an ongoing investigation, and the Michigan Department of Attorney General has not ruled out potential charges against additional defendants," the announcement from Nessel's office said.
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