Michigan Debunks The Big Lie Election Theft Conspiracy Theory

The Arizona Senate has embarrassed itself and the state of Arizona with its shitshow of a GQP sham “fraudit” of Maricopa County ballots by an unqualified QAnon conspiracy theorist promoting the Big Lie that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. It is just one big grift of the simple-minded fools who are members of the MAGA/QAnon personality cult of Donald Trump.

Here is an example from the state of Michigan on how to have dealt with the Big Lie election theft conspiracy theory the right way. This is what we should have expected from our Arizona legislature.

Michigan Bridge reports, GOP investigation finds no Michigan vote fraud, deems many claims ‘ludicrous’:

A months-long Republican investigation into Michigan’s 2020 election uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud and concluded Wednesday with a recommendation the attorney general investigate those who made false claims for “personal gain.”

The 35-page report prepared by Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, dives deep to debunk conspiracy theories perpetuated by former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters in the wake of the Michigan election, which Democratic President Joe Biden won by 154,188 votes.

While the Senate Oversight Committee investigation revealed some “glaring issues” and vulnerabilities the Legislature should fix, “there is no evidence presented at this time to prove either significant acts of fraud or that an organized, wide-scale effort to commit fraudulent activity was perpetrated in order to subvert the will of Michigan voters,” McBroom wrote.

“Our clear finding is that citizens should be confident the results represent the true results of the ballots cast by the people of Michigan,” the report concluded. “The committee strongly recommends citizens use a critical eye and ear toward those who have pushed demonstrably false theories for their own personal gain.”

The report, which was released Wednesday, concludes there is no proof of dead voters or “fractional voting,” no evidence of a fraudulent “ballot dump” in Detroit and no proof any Michigan precincts had more than 100 percent voter turnout.  (The report follows Bridge Michigan articles that debunked many of the same allegations months ago.)

The report also repudiates arguments GOP activists have used in calling for a “forensic audit” of the Michigan election [i.e, Cyber Ninjas in Arizona], including claims that Dominion voting machines were connected to the internet or “manipulated” in rural Antrim County, where human error by the Republican clerk led to initially skewed results that have fueled false claims of a global conspiracy.

Cyber Ninjas, leading the #ArizonaAudit was at the forefront of the "willful ignorance or avoidance of this proof perpetuated by some leading such speculation," as concluded by the GOP-led Michigan Senate Oversight Committee https://t.co/H3xqH95qF7

— Jim Small (@JimSmall) June 23, 2021

Those claims have persisted in areas like Cheboygan County, a Trump stronghold in northern Michigan where GOP commissioners on Tuesday requested state permission to launch an independent audit and investigate whether “any unauthorized computer actually manipulated the actual presidential election vote tally.”

McBroom and his colleagues launched their investigation on Nov. 7, four days after the presidential election. The oversight committee took more than 28 hours of testimony from nearly 90 individuals over the course of nine committee hearings in the following months.

The GOP-led panel also reviewed thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents from government entities, utilized “hundreds of hours of Senate staff investigation” time and conducted “countless reviews” of claims and concerns from Michigan residents, according to the report.

The investigation, however, uncovered gaps in Michigan law that could make the state susceptible to illegal activity, according to the committee report, which was released as Senate Republicans begin to advance an election reform package that critics have decried as attempted “voter suppression.”

The report does not explicitly recommend the most controversial reform proposal: a strict voter ID measure that Senate Republicans approved last week.

But it urges new training standards for poll challengers, a ban on unsolicited mailing of absentee ballot applications, new signature verification requirements for absentee ballots, a universal drop box security camera mandate and more.

“Citizens should demand reasonable updates and reforms to close real vulnerabilities and unlawful activities that caused much of the doubt and questionability to flourish and could, if unchecked, be responsible for serious and disastrous fraud or confusion in the future,” the report concluded.

‘Purposely defrauding people’

McBroom, who has personally investigated increasingly far-fetched conspiracy claims about the 2020 election, told Bridge Michigan he hopes the new committee report “answers a lot of questions” from voters who may not have had time to research the allegations themselves.

Claims that election workers or outside entities “manipulated” votes in Antrim County are “indefensible,” according to the report, which confirmed the local reporting error was a human mistake later fixed and verified by a hand recount.

“The committee is appalled at what can only be deduced as a willful ignorance or avoidance of this proof perpetuated by some leading such speculation,” McBroom wrote.

The oversight report urges Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel to investigate “those who have been utilizing misleading and false information about Antrim County to raise money or publicity for their own ends.”

While McBroom declined to tell Bridge who he thinks Nessel should investigate, his report spends considerable time debunking claims by attorneys Matt DePerno and Patrick Colbeck, leading figures in pro-Trump conspiracy circles.

DePerno has been promoted as an election expert (sic) in conspiracy videos produced by Trump ally Mike Lindell, and he has repeated unsubstantiated claims of election fraud on conservative radio and online programs, including the “War Room” with former Trump strategist Steve Bannon.

But “the committee closely followed Mr. DePerno’s efforts and can confidently conclude they are demonstrably false and based on misleading information and illogical conclusions,” the McBroom report stated.

[T]here is “good reason” to conclude conspiracy theorists are “purposely defrauding people” of their money, and that would be a crime, McBroom told Bridge Michigan in a phone interview.

“The claims have become so ludicrous when compared to the actual facts,” McBroom told Bridge Michigan. “And yet people persist, such as Mr. DePerno.”

The attorney general should investigate whether individuals who spread false simply made “good faith errors” or if “there was criminality,” McBroom added.

There is “good reason” to conclude some people are “purposely defrauding people” of their money, and that would be “a crime,” he said.

Colbeck and DePerno did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday from Bridge.

DePerno, Colbeck and other die-hard Trump supporters last week ramped up their calls for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 Michigan election, rallying at the state Capitol and delivering signed statements from voters requesting another review of results certified months ago.

Leaders in the Republican-led Legislature have not acted on those calls but are monitoring an ongoing audit in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which Trump supporters hope will prove fraud but critics have decried as a partisan operation led by a firm whose founder has spread pro-Trump conspiracies.

State Rep. Steve Carra, a Three Rivers Republican running for Congress, on Tuesday introduced legislation proposing to create a bipartisan “audit board” that would hire an outside firm to review ballots, voting machines and poll books.

Jim Crow 2.0 targeted voter suppression:

Carra’s plan would target Detroit, the state’s largest city and a Democratic stronghold [and a large African-American voter population] that has been the subject of Trump’s ire. It would require audits in 20 percent of Detroit precincts and 10 percent of precincts in all 83 counties.

“A thorough, bipartisan review will help us identify what works, what doesn’t, and how to make our elections secure and accessible for every Michigan voter,” Carra said in a statement.

McBroom told Bridge he is listening to the activists’ calls for an independent audit but said he thinks the push has been driven by “fears or misunderstandings of what happened in Antrim County” that his committee report debunks.

“If you’re basing your drive for an audit off of Antrim County, then right away you can already say there’s no point,” McBroom said.

However, the oversight report does urge the Legislature to clarify how citizens can request an audit, a right guaranteed under a state constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2018.

In a related matter, Michigan Live reports, Attorneys who sought to overturn election results in Michigan ‘Kraken’ lawsuit face sanction hearing:

Both before and after the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Jan. 14 based on unfounded claims of election fraud, the Attorney General’s Office and attorneys who represented Detroit filed requests for U.S. District Judge Linda Parker to issue sanctions and fines against plaintiff attorneys, among them former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who vowed to “release the Kraken.”

Judge Parker on Thursday set a sanction hearing for July 6 in Detroit federal court.

The attorneys facing possible discipline are: Michigan-based attorneys Stefanie Lambert Junttila, Scott Hagerstrom and Gregory J. Rohl, as well as Sidney Powell.

“It was never about winning on the merits of the claims, but rather plaintiffs’ purpose was to undermine the integrity of the election results and the people’s trust in the electoral process and in government,” attorneys for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office wrote in a Jan. 28 request for sanctions. “The filing of litigation for that purpose is clearly an abuse of the judicial process and warrants the imposition of sanctions.”

The lawsuit claimed President Joe Biden won in Michigan through manipulated ballot counts using Dominion Election Systems voting machines and fraudulent absentee ballots, among other unproven means. The Michigan Board of Canvassers certified Biden’s win on Nov. 23.

Some of the public claims made by Powell led Dominion Voting Systems to name her in a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit.

Detroit attorneys, in their request for sanctions, wrote that there is “blood” on the “hands of all who pushed this lawsuit,” referencing the violence that occurred when Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol and rioted on Jan. 6.

More from Reuters reporter Brad Heath:

The hearing is actually on three separate requests for sanctions – by Detroit; Michigan's governor and secretary of state; and a voter who intervened in the case. It's open to the public and will be on Zoom. pic.twitter.com/nJtND54ZF9

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) June 17, 2021

Among other things, this is the case in which lawyers for ex-Trump attorney Sidney Powell claimed she can't be sanctioned because she never signed the pleadings, even though she electronically signed them. pic.twitter.com/KgeIXyfhlO

— Brad Heath (@bradheath) June 17, 2021

UPDATE: Trump’s fascist Michigan Militia is not happy. The Republican Senate report debunking all their conspiracy theories was not welcomed by many of the former president’s supporters in Michigan, and the Washington Post reports that many armed Trump thugs have been protesting outside the state Capitol building demanding that the state conduct an Arizona-style “audit” of its election results.

“They are lying,” attorney Matthew DePerno, an attorney who was cited in the Michigan State Senate report for making “ludicrous” claims, said recently to cheering supporters during a pro-“audit” rally. “These people have committed crimes!”

The Post notes that “the drumbeat for audits has been accompanied by increasingly violent and vitriolic threats against state and local officials.