Explaining the Michigan Fake Electors Prosecution
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2023
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
On July 18, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel unveiled criminal charges against 16 people—the “fake electors” from that state who featured in Trump’s effort to hold onto power in 2020. Just a few weeks later, a special counsel in Michigan announced additional charges related to the 2020 election, this time against three people who allegedly accessed voting machines in the state without authorization. So if you’ve been tracking developments when it comes to accountability for misconduct surrounding the 2020 election, it’s best not to take your eye off Michigan.
To discuss, Lawfare Senior Editor Quinta Jurecic sat down with Clara Hendrickson, a politics reporter at the Detroit Free Press. They talked through the backstory behind these prosecutions and why Michigan became such a hotbed of conspiracy theories and alleged crimes in 2020.
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| 1:08.6 | So I talked to most of these folks back in 2020 when they were just candidates to be presidential |
| 1:16.4 | electors. A lot of them at the time expressed that the 2020 election for them was this |
| 1:23.3 | sort of stark choice between saving the republic and democratic socialism, and they talked |
| 1:31.1 | about the importance of serving as electors, said it was a very important role that they |
| 1:35.2 | were taking very seriously. So it's been interesting to revisit those conversations three years |
| 1:41.6 | later now that they're facing criminal charges because of how they handled that role or |
| 1:49.1 | thought that they really were presidential electors. |
| 1:52.9 | I'm Quinteduristic, a senior editor at LawFair, and this is the LawFair podcast, August 16, |
| 2:00.1 | 2023. On July 18, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nestle unveiled criminal charges against |
| 2:08.9 | 16 people, the so-called fake electors from that state, who featured in Trump's effort |
| 2:14.7 | to hold on to power in 2020. Just a few weeks later, a special counsel in Michigan announced |
| 2:20.6 | additional charges related to the 2020 election. This time, against three people who allegedly |
| 2:26.1 | accessed voting machines in the state without authorization. So if you've been tracking |
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