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16 Michigan residents charged in alleged fake electors scheme during 2020 election

By Jack Nissen
Published  July 18, 2023 4:35pm EDT
2020 Election
FOX 2 Detroit

Nessel says she has evidence to charge fake Michigan GOP electors

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel wants federal authorities to investigate 16 Republicans who claimed they were the state's presidential electors, but if the federal investigators do not, she said she will take action.

LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - A total of 16 Michigan residents have been charged for their role in a false electors scheme during the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. 

Among those charged include Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party and well-known figure in the apparatus. She's also married to a current representative in the legislature.

The charges include conspiracy to commit forgery, forgery, conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing, uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and election law forgery.

"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. 

MORE: AG Nessel says she has enough evidence to charge 16 fake Michigan GOP electors if DOJ doesn't take action

"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." 

Those charged include:

  • 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
  • Mary-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

The Michigan Attorney General alleges the defendants all met secretly in the basement of the state GOP's headquarters on Dec. 14. There, they signed their names to multiple certificates that state they were the "duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan."

The documents were transmitted to the U.S. Senate and National Archives in a coordinated effort to falsely award Michigan's electoral votes to Donald Trump.

No date has been set yet for the defendants to appear in court.