LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge dismissed criminal charges Tuesday against a group of people who were accused of attempting to falsely certifying President Donald Trump as the winner of the 2020 election in the battleground state, a major blow to prosecutors as similar cases in four other states have been muddied with setbacks.
District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons said in a court hearing that the 15 Republicans accused will not face trial. The case has dragged through the courts since Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced the charges over two years ago.
Here is who was originally charged in the case:
- Kathy Berden, now residing in Tennessee
- William (Hank) Choate of Cement City
- Amy Facchinello of Grand Blanc
- Clifford Frost of Warren
- Stanley Grot of Shelby Township
- John Haggard of Charlevoix
- Mari-Ann Henry of Brighton
- Timothy King of Ypsilanti
- Michele Lundgren of Detroit
- Meshawn Maddock of Milford
- James Renner of Lansing
- Mayra Rodriguez of Grosse Pointe Farms
- Rose Rook of Paw Paw
- Marian Sheridan of West Bloomfield
- Ken Thompson of Orleans
- Kent Vanderwood of Wyoming
Each person faced the following charges:
- One count of Conspiracy to Commit Forgery, a 14-year felony;
- Two counts of Forgery, a 14-year felony;
- One count of Conspiracy to Commit Uttering and Publishing, a 14-year felony;
- One count of Uttering and Publishing, a 14-year felony;
- One count of Conspiracy to Commit Election Law Forgery, a 5-year felony; and,
- Two counts of Election Law Forgery, a 5-year felony.
Investigators said the group met at the Michigan GOP headquarters in December of 2020 and signed a document falsely stating they were the state's "duly elected and qualified electors." President Joe Biden won Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes, a result confirmed by a GOP-led state Senate investigation in 2021.
Local News
Experts weigh in on 16 'false electors' charged
Electors are part of the 538-member Electoral College that officially elects the president of the United States. In 48 states, electors vote for the candidate who won the popular vote. In Nebraska and Maine, elector votes are awarded based on congressional district and statewide results.
One man accused in the Michigan case, James Renner, had the charges against him dropped after he agreed to cooperate with the state attorney general's office in October 2023. The other 15 defendants, including Wyoming Mayor Kent Vanderwood, pleaded not guilty and have maintained that their actions were not illegal.
Kent
Michigan GOP electors sued for scheme to falsify docs in 2020
Judge Simmons took nearly a year to say whether there was sufficient evidence to bring the cases to trial following a series of lengthy preliminary hearings.
Prosecutors in Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme. None of the cases have neared the trial stage and many have been bogged down by procedural and appellate delays.
In Nevada, the state attorney general revived a case against a group of allegedly fake electors last year, while a judge in Arizona ordered a similar case back to a grand jury in May. In Wisconsin last month, a judge declined to dismiss felony charges against three Trump allies connected to a plan to falsely cast electoral ballots for Trump even though Biden won the state in 2020.
The Georgia prosecution is essentially on hold while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Atlanta, who brought the charges against President Trump and others appeals her removal from the case. Technically, Trump is still a defendant in the case, but as the sitting president, it is highly unlikely that any prosecution against him could proceed while he's in office.
The effort to secure fake electors was central to the federal indictment against Trump that was abandoned earlier this year shortly before Trump took office for his second term.
Follow FOX 17: Facebook - X (formerly Twitter) - Instagram - YouTube
