Lansing — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Monday her office won’t appeal the dismissal of felony charges against 15 Republicans who signed a certificate falsely claiming President Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
The decision came after what the Democratic attorney general described as a “thorough assessment of the resources and time required to pursue justice in these cases, the pace and difficulty with which various courts have dealt with criminal violations of election law and our likelihood of success given stringent appellate review standards.”
Nessel’s statement effectively ended a three-year legal saga that centered on the failed bid by Trump supporters to reverse his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
A 110-page report, released by her office Monday, defended its approach to the prosecution and said state investigators had previously planned to secure cooperation from Republican electors in hopes it “would enable charges against the more culpable architects of the conspiracy.”
“The goal of the conspiracy was quite simply, a coup,” the report said. “Had every component succeeded, a person who lost the presidential election and had no lawful claim to the office would have assumed the presidency in 2021.”
In July 2023, Nessel’s office charged each of the GOP electors with eight felonies, including forgery. But in September, Ingham County District Court Judge Kristen Simmons rejected the charges, saying she believed the Republicans were exercising their constitutional rights by seeking a redress of grievances about the election.
Nessel had the chance to appeal, but, according to her office, she had until Monday to file an application for leave to appeal to the Ingham County Circuit Court.
Instead, the attorney general’s office issued the 110-page report on the false electors on Monday.
“The failure to provide accountability to Michigan’s false slate will surely inspire others to be as creative as possible in finding electoral mechanisms to exploit, at the behest of Trump or other candidates for political office,” Nessel wrote in the report.
Trump won Michigan’s 2024 election.
In the new report, the Attorney General’s Office said the decision to not appeal was “not the department’s finding of innocence.
“As detailed through this report, the evidence supports that Michigan’s false slate participated in a multi-state criminal conspiracy linked directly to Trump,” the report said.
The report noted that forgery carries a six-year statute of limitations.
“It is fundamentally unjust to continue pursuing the false slate, the less culpable members of this conspiracy, when the more culpable actors can no longer be held accountable in Michigan regardless of the outcome,” the attorney general’s report said. “While we have previously stated that the false slate investigation remained ongoing and that additional charges had not been ruled out, that investigation has now concluded.”
Simmons, an appointee of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, held three sets of preliminary examinations for the Republican electors. The judge had to decide whether Nessel’s office presented enough evidence to prove there was probable cause to believe crimes occurred — the standard for the cases to go to trial.
If the top charges with the steepest penalties had gone to trial and the defendants were found guilty, they would have faced sentences of up to 14 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
“This is a fraud case, and we have to prove intent, and I do not believe there is evidence sufficient to prove intent,” Simmons said in September. “I believe there’s insufficient evidence brought on this record to even establish that the defendants were trained or (it was) explained to them what their duties would be.”
The document the Michigan Republicans signed during a Dec. 14, 2020, gathering said they were Michigan’s “duly elected and qualified” presidential electors and was eventually used by Trump advisers in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn his loss to Biden in Congress.
Biden won Michigan’s 16 electoral votes by defeating Trump by about 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, 51%-48%, in the November 2020 election.
In addition, the certificate also said the GOP electors had met inside the state Capitol, but they had actually convened inside the Michigan Republican Party headquarters.
One of the electors, James Renner of Lansing, reached a cooperation agreement with Nessel’s office, and the charges were dropped against him before the preliminary examinations.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan AG Dana Nessel won’t appeal false Trump electors decision
Reporting by Craig Mauger, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
