Michigan state Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) has revealed that her office has submitted information regarding an instance of what would seem to be legally recognizable election fraud to federal authorities, implicating over a dozen Republicans — including the current co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party. At issue are signed documents claiming that over a dozen Republicans in the state, including that party leader, were the members of the electoral college for the state of Michigan following the 2020 presidential election — even though Joe Biden won the state and officials certified that outcome. The documents, Nessel noted, could represent criminal offenses such as forgery of public records.
So long as Trump’s enablers serve in the Senate, our democracy is in danger. They need to be expelled.
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) January 14, 2022
As Nessel pointedly explained things:
‘I will tell you that we’ve been evaluating charges for nearly a year now based on these activities, as soon as we became aware of that. So, I will say, under state law I think clearly you have forgery of a public record, which is a 14-year offense, and election law forgery, which is a five-year offense. But, what we have decided to do with the investigation in light of the fact that of course, we have seen… various different false slates of electors from seven different states, in what seems to be a coordinated effort between the Republican parties in various different states — we think this is a matter that is best investigated and potentially prosecuted by the feds.’
Thus, Nessel explained that “just today we referred this matter to the Western District, the U.S. Attorney’s office, for them to evaluate it, and we hope that the Department of Justice will become involved and use the information they already have to better understand exactly what happened that day so that federal charges can be evaluated.” She made these comments during a Thursday appearance on MSNBC. Watch Nessel’s commentary below:
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says she has turned over evidence against 14 Republicans who signed forged election documents to the DOJ for criminal prosecution. pic.twitter.com/tTZETrAgjQ
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) January 14, 2022
The documents claiming that Michigan’s members of the electoral college were Trump-backers have been obtained by the House committee investigating the Capitol riot. Originally, those behind the falsified materials submitted them to the National Archives, which subsequently got in touch with Michigan state officials regarding the documents in early January of last year. The National Archives informed Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater and the governor’s chief legal counsel that the materials lacked validity due to the governor having not signed off on them.
One thing is clear from the indictment: The Oath Keepers planned on and needed a crowd as cover. Even if Trump wasn’t directly involved in their “plan,” his expectation to his lunatic mob to head to the Capitol definitely helped them execute their operation
— Asha Rangappa (@AshaRangappa_) January 14, 2022
As previously explained by CNN, the infamous plans laid out by conservative lawyer John Eastman for then-Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification of Biden’s election victory involved rejecting the documented Biden wins in seven individual states because of supposedly competing electoral votes — but the Republican schemes represented by these documents that Nessel was discussing didn’t have any legally recognizable foundation. The scheme “included throwing out the results in seven states because they allegedly had competing electors,” but “no state had actually put forward an alternate slate of electors — there were merely Trump allies claiming without any authority to be electors,” as CNN summarized.
Let me get this straight: 60-vote threshold was carved up 160 times so senators could pass Trump tax cuts, gas bill & Supreme Ct Justices but when it comes to voting rights, “traditions” & “comity” mean you hug it tight, throw the voters under the senate desks & go home? No way.
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) January 13, 2022
