The stunning announcement Tuesday by Michigan's Democrat Attorney General Dana Nessel that felony charges were brought against 16 Republicans for portraying themselves as presidential electors in 2020 sent shock waves through the Wolverine State and made headlines nationwide.
Nessel specifically charged that 16 Republican electors "weren't the duly elected and qualified electors" and the charges are serious: two counts of election law forgery, two counts of forgery, and one count each of uttering and publishing, conspiracy to commit forgery, and conspiracy to commit election law forgery.
"Conspiracy to commit forgery and conspiracy and conspiracy to commit uttering and publishing carry the steepest penalties," Ingham County (Lansing) Republican Co-Chair Norm Shinkle told Newsmax, noting that any of the 16 could be punished with up to 14 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The parties in each state choose electors who will cast the electoral votes of that state depending on which presidential candidate carried it in the November election.
On Nov. 20, 2020, the state Board of Canvassers voted to certify now-President Joe Biden as the winner of Michigan's 16 electoral votes. Accordingly, the Democratic slate of electors met in the State Capitol in Lansing on Dec. 16, 2020, and officially cast its electoral votes for Biden.
Denied access to the Capitol, the Republican electors held a meeting, but at their state party's headquarters in Lansing. Informed by three attorneys representing the former President Donald Trump campaign that there would be pending legal battles over the official count, the electors were then told to sign a form which stated their opinion Trump was the winner in Michigan.
"And that form meant absolutely nothing," former Oakland County GOP Chair and attorney Rocky Raczkowski told Newsmax. "How can [Nessel] charge forgery when this was not an official document, did not have the seal of the state or the governor's signature on it, nor forgeries of them?"
He added: "Just because I proclaim myself king doesn't mean I'm king."
Voicing the opinions of several Republicans who spoke to Newsmax, Raczkowski said, "These charges are a joke and not just meant to demoralize Republicans but to prop up Dana Nessel as a future Democratic leader."
Raczkowski and other Republican lawyers we talked to all noted that Michigan and at least four other states had also brought the claim of "false electors" to the Department of Justice last year and federal officials did not act on it.
"It was submitted to DOJ, and DOJ wouldn't touch it," Raczkowski told us, "So now Nessel is trying to prosecute in state court what is clearly a federal issue."
Another GOP attorney who spoke to us said that Nessel "now has a double burden. She must prove that the 16 electors are guilty of forgery beyond a reasonable doubt and that her action was not politically motivated."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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