Following up on earlier reporting this week, the Rachel Maddow Show interviewed Michigan’s Attorney General and Secretary of State about that state’s experience with fake Republican electors with forged election documents. Michigan’s Attorney General has been investigating – unlike our partisan hack Attorney General, Mark Brnovich aka “Nunchucks” (or is it numbnuts?) who appears to have done nothing to investigate the fake Republican electors with forged documents in Arizona (even though the Arizona Republic first reported it in December 2020).
CNN reports, Trump allies’ fake Electoral College certificates offer fresh insights about plot to overturn Biden’s victory:
In the weeks after the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump’s allies sent fake certificates to the National Archives declaring that Trump won seven states that he actually lost. The fake certificates were created by Trump allies in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico, who sought to replace valid presidential electors from their states with a pro-Trump slate, according to documents obtained by American Oversight.
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Some of the fake certificates with pro-Trump electors were sent to the National Archives by top officials representing the Republican Party in each state, according to the documents. [AZ Republican Party Chair “Chemtrails” Kelli Ward, for example.]
They sent these fake certificates after Trump himself failed to block governors from signing the real certificates. Specifically, Trump encouraged Republican governors in states like Georgia and Arizona not to certify the election results, and falsely claimed the elections were fraudulent. But these GOP officials ignored Trump, followed the law, and awarded the electors to Biden.
Installing slates of “alternate electors” was an integral part of the ill-fated plan conceived by Trump allies to usurp power on January 6 by pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to throw out the pro-Biden electors that had been chosen by voters. The idea was promoted by Trump advisers inside and outside the White House, including controversial right-wing lawyer John Eastman.
Eastman, who has been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee, authored a memo outlining a six-step plan for Pence to overturn the election and award Trump a second term. The plan included throwing out results from seven states because they allegedly had competing electors.
Because this Trump election fraud scheme occured over seven states, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel tells Rachel Maddow that she believes the Republican Party scheme to submit a fake slate of electors for the 2020 election to the National Archives and the U.S. Senate not only warrants criminal investigation but should be handed by the Department of Justice. The Trump election fraud scheme is also a central focus of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Summary from Yahoo News. Michigan AG says scheme to overthrow election with fake electors ‘may go all the way to the top’:
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show Thursday, where she spoke about the scheme in which Republicans in several states that President Biden won forged election documents in an attempt to give the election to former President Trump. Fraudulent electors in Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia sent documents to the National Archives to certify the election for Trump, despite Biden having won. While no one has been arrested yet in connection with this attempted election fraud, Nessel expects authorities to gather more evidence, and that this may have been orchestrated from the highest levels of government.
“What we have decided to do with the investigation, in light of the fact that of course we have seen, as you (Maddow) have pointed out multiple times now,” Nessel said, “various different false slate of electors from [several] 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.”
While Nessel hasn’t ruled out bringing state charges, as double jeopardy does not apply in this case, she believes individuals involved could be facing significant federal charges.
“Obviously, this is part of a much bigger conspiracy,” Nessel said, “and our hope is that the federal authorities and the Department of Justice, and United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, will take this in coordination with all the other information they’ve received, and make an evaluation as to what charges these individuals might face. I mean, I can think of many.”
So here’s the thing. The Arizona Republic first reported on this in December 2020. The documents obtained by American Oversight have been posted online since March 2021. The evidence of this Trump election fraud is public facing – they signed their names to the forged documents, there is no mystery here – and our partisan hack Attorney General Mark Brnovich has done nothing, despite having an Election Integrity Unit with over a half-million dollar budget.
Brno can redeeem himself this Saturday when the Coup Plotter in Chief comes to Arizona for one of his Nuremberg style campaign rallies to promote his Big Lie, which is what this Trump election fraud scheme was all about. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office should bring Trump in for questioning, along with all of the Republicans who participated in his election fraud scheme. Most are likely to be in attendance at Trump’s rally to make it convenient for authorities to round them all up.
Even more convenient, this rally is in Florence where the Arizona State Prison is located. There are prison cells readily available for these peole, which is where they all belong.
Do your damn job, Brno!
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The AP adds, “Michigan AG asks feds to investigate fake GOP electors”, https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-michigan-elections-electoral-college-criminal-investigations-8a0454f0a28fd3f5903fa3ab962f764b
Michigan’s attorney general is asking federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation into 16 Republicans who submitted false certificates stating they were the state’s presidential electors.
Dana Nessel, a Democrat, disclosed Thursday that her office had been evaluating charges for nearly a year but decided to refer the matter to the U.S. attorney in western Michigan.
“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,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. But the Justice Department, she said, is best suited to probe and potentially prosecute.
The spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment Friday.
Nessel alleged a “coordinated effort” among Republican parties in several battleground states including Michigan to push so-called alternate slates of electors with fake documents. She said she wants federal authorities to make an evaluation for possible charges.
“Obviously this is part of a much bigger conspiracy,” Nessel said.
On Jan. 8, 2021, the Office of the Federal Register — which coordinates certain functions of the Electoral College between states and Congress — notified Michigan’s elections director and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s chief lawyer in an email that it received unofficial, signed certificates from GOP electors who had not been appointed by the Democratic governor. The group includes Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden and Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party.
When Michigan’s electors cast 16 votes for Biden in December 2020 following the certification of his 2.8 percentage point win, a separate group that included some Republican state House members tried to enter the state Capitol with Donald Trump’s Electoral College candidates. They were turned away by state police but claimed in the certificates that they met “in the State Capitol.”
The invalid certificates also were mailed to the U.S. Senate, Benson, and the federal court for western Michigan. Two Republicans did not sign the documents and were replaced.
There are complaints pending in Wisconsin alleging that GOP electors in that swing state committed fraud by submitting the false paperwork. Biden won Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes, a result that has withstood recounts, lawsuits and investigations into fraud.
Complaints have been filed with the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission and the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office. Neither has announced publicly about any action taken in response. Another complaint against Andrew Hitt, an attorney who was chairman of the Wisconsin Republican Party at the time, has been filed with the agency that handles complaints against lawyers.