16 false Trump electors face felony charges in Michigan

Lansing — Attorney General Dana Nessel is leveling felony charges against 16 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Donald Trump won Michigan's 2020 presidential election, launching criminal cases against top political figures inside the state GOP.

Each of the 16 electors, including former Michigan Republican Party Co-Chairwoman Meshawn Maddock and Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot, have been charged with eight felony counts, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election law forgery, according to Nessel's office.

The revelation capped six months of investigation and produced the most serious allegations yet in Michigan over the campaign to overturn Trump's loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Biden won the state by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, but Trump and his supporters maintained false and unproven claims that fraud swung the result.

As part of the push to undermine Biden's victory, Trump supporters gathered inside the then-Michigan Republican Party headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed a certificate, claiming to cast the state's 16 electoral votes for Trump.

Eventually, the false certificate was sent to the National Archives and Congress. The document inaccurately claimed the Trump electors had met inside the Michigan Capitol. However, they hadn't. Biden's electors convened inside the Capitol, and the building was closed to others on Dec. 14, 2020.

"The false electors’ actions undermined the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan," said Nessel, a Democrat, in a statement.

"My department has prosecuted numerous cases of election law violations throughout my tenure, and it would be malfeasance of the greatest magnitude if my department failed to act here in the face of overwhelming evidence of an organized effort to circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of Michigan voters in a presidential election."

The 16 defendants are:

• Kathy Berden, 70, of Snover 
• William (Hank) Choate, 72, of Cement City 
• Amy Facchinello, 55, of Grand Blanc 
• Clifford Frost, 75, of Warren 
• Stanley Grot, 71, of Shelby Township 
• John Haggard, 82, of Charlevoix 
• Mari-Ann Henry, 65, of Brighton 
• Timothy King, 56, of Ypsilanti 
• Michele Lundgren, 73, of Detroit 
• Meshawn Maddock, 55, of Milford
• James Renner, 76, of Lansing 
• Mayra Rodriguez, 64, of Grosse Pointe Farms 
• Rose Rook, 81, of Paw Paw 
• Marian Sheridan, 69, of West Bloomfield 
• Ken Thompson, 68, of Orleans 
• Kent Vanderwood, 69, of Wyoming 

More:Ex-Michigan GOP chair: Idea to hide Trump electors in Capitol overnight 'insane'

Republicans criticized the charges on Tuesday, contending they were politically motivated. Vance Patrick, chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party, called the charges an overreach by Nessel.

"This is an egregious abuse of power by a radical progressive and continues the trend of politically motivated witch hunts, perpetrated by the left against Republican candidates and activists," Patrick said in a Tuesday statement.

But Democrats, such as Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, touted them. Benson said the nation was beginning to "see accountability and justice for those who were part of an actionable plan to subvert the will of the people in 2020."

Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame Law School, said the criminal charges leveled are a "fraught" area of the law.

"... (I) am quite skeptical of this indictment but I'll need some time to collect my thoughts," Muller added in a post on Twitter.

Ryan Goodman, a law professor New York University School of Law, called the charges "a strong case" and noted the fake electors signed a sworn statement attesting "we convened and organized in the State Capitol."

"In truth, they met (secretly) in GOP headquarters basement," Goodman wrote on Twitter.

Eight felonies outlined

The felony complaints indicate the warrants for each of the electors were signed Thursday and Friday of last week, according to copies of the documents.

In addition to Maddock and Grot, Kathy Berden, the Republican national committeewoman from Michigan; Kent Vanderwood, the mayor of Wyoming; and Marian Sheridan, grassroots vice chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, are also facing charges.

Each of the 16 electors is charged with eight felonies: two counts of election law forgery; two counts of forgery; and one count each of uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery. 

Conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, which carry the steepest penalties, are both punishable by up to 14 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The conspiracy charges allege the defendants worked with Berden, Maddock and others to falsely make a public record: the certificate of votes of the 2020 electors from Michigan.

More:False Trump electors plan was shrouded in secrecy, even for some electors in Michigan

In a Tuesday afternoon phone interview, one of the Trump electors, John Haggard, 82, of Charlevoix said he had not been previously informed that he was being charged with felonies. After a reporter told him of the news, Haggard initially thought the charges were coming from federal prosecutors, not the state attorney general.

Haggard said he didn't believe there was any policy in the country that prevented people from making "a statement."

“Did I do anything illegal? No," Haggard said.

Another of the 16 electors, Michele Lundgren, said she was distraught over the charges and she questioned what evidence prosecutors had.

The 73-year-old Detroiter said she had simply received a call on Dec. 13, 2020, to be in Lansing the following day. While there, Lundgren said she signed what she thought was a sign-in sheet.

“We signed a blank piece of paper," Lundgren said. "And that’s all can tell you."

According to Nessel's office, when the electors gathered on Dec. 14, 2020, at the state GOP headquarters on Seymour Avenue in Lansing to sign the false certificate, Renner and Thompson were "selected" as replacements for two Republican electors who did not attend: Gerald Wall and Terri Lynn Land, the former two-term secretary of state.

"Neither Land nor Wall signed the document," according to an affidavit signed by Howard Schock, a special agent investigator in Nessel's office.

'Ongoing investigation'

After initially referring the matter to federal prosecutors in January, Nessel reopened a state-level investigation into the fake Trump electors, citing new documents released by a U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, failed attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

In testimony before the committee, Laura Cox, who was chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party in 2020, said she had prepared a document for the Trump electors to sign on Dec. 14, 2020, that said they had merely participated in a ceremony and "would cast their votes" for the Republican president if given the chance.

Cox told U.S. House investigators that the intent behind the document she pushed for was to state that the Republican Trump electors were willing to serve and vote for Trump if "something were to happen in the courts" in the future to overturn the result.

However, the electors participated in an event in the basement of Michigan GOP headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020, that produced a certificate that claimed Trump had won the state's 16 electoral votes.

An affidavit prepared by Nessel's office in support of the complaint indicated Republican staffers in interviews with investigators said non-electors were blocked from entering the building and electors were required to surrender their cellphones to prevent any recording of the event. GOP elector Mayra Rodriguez would later tell the Jan. 6 Select Committee that Trump campaign aide Shawn Flynn was present and spoke to the electors at the site.

Later, four of the false electors — Lundgren, Maddock, Sheridan and Thompson — appeared at the state Capitol Dec. 14, 2020, with Republican then-state Rep. Daire Rendon, who said the "electors" were there to cast votes, the document said. But they were turned away by the Michigan State Police.

Attorney Ian Northon attempted to deliver a manila envelope similar to the size of the certificate to the Michigan Senate, claiming it contained the Republican electoral votes, the filing said. The U.S. National Archives and U.S. Senate Archives later reported receiving a copy of the false certificate from Berden.

Cellphone records obtained from Berden indicated she and Haggard shared some concerns over text on Dec. 14, 2020, regarding Maddock posting about the incident on Facebook, according to the affidavit.

"Was she not told at the meeting to keep quite (sic)," Haggard wrote, according to the affidavit.

"Yes we all were," Berden replied.

"Right. If she can't keep quite (sic) after taking the oath what would she do as vice chair?" wrote Haggard, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit cited several instances in which Maddock, Sheridan, Grot and Thompson admitted to signing the document.

Michigan election law bans someone from knowingly making or publishing a false document "with the intent to defraud."

Each defendant, or their attorneys, has been notified of the charges, and the court will provide each with a date to appear in Ingham County district court for an arraignment, Nessel's office said. 

"This remains an ongoing investigation, and the Michigan Department of Attorney General has not ruled out potential charges against additional defendants," Nessel's office said.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

eleblanc@detroitnews.com