The investigation undertaken by Michigan state Attorney General Dana Nessel into sham electors backing Donald Trump who assembled in her state after the 2020 presidential election has taken new turns, CNN says. The investigation evidently remains ongoing even after the individuals who actually signed on as the sham electors were criminally charged.
In Michigan and six other states where Joe Biden was victorious in the 2020 presidential race, Trump allies assembled ostensible slates of electoral votes for the then-outgoing president despite Biden’s victories in these jurisdictions having given him the electoral votes. Involved individuals attempted to line up the sham elector operations with the legal standards for handling legitimate electoral college votes, including via meeting in the legally designated place, which for Michigan was their state Capitol — though pro-Trump efforts to access the building were unsuccessful. That’s an area where Nessel’s investigation is now focusing, though, with interest in a pro-Trump lawyer who tried to help the fake electors get in the building.
He’s named Ian Northon. He allegedly participated in conference calls with Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman — two other lawyers tied to Trump — after the 2020 presidential race as Trump’s circles devised their strategies. Northon also filed his own lawsuit over the 2020 presidential election results in Michigan, which like every other case staking a similar path produced no change to the outcome. He has previously testified to the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot and surrounding circumstances — and now, Nessel’s investigation was set to see the cooperation of another Trump-tied lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro.
Chesebro helped draft and push the fake electors scheme and was himself charged in Georgia. He’s now engaged in cooperation with investigators across at least four states outside Georgia, a list also including Nevada — where another criminal case against some of Trump’s fake electors was recently filed! That case implicates figures as high-ranking as Michael McDonald, the Nevada Republican Party’s state chairman.
