Thirteen 2020 fake electors will cast real Electoral College votes for Trump on Tuesday
By Marshall Cohen, CNN
Washington (CNN) — Thirteen Republicans who participated in the 2020 fake electors plot, including some who are facing criminal charges, will cast real Electoral College votes Tuesday for President-elect Donald Trump, as electors in the states finalize his victory.
These Republican activists hail from Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada – critical battleground states that Trump carried this year, after losing them all in 2020. Four years ago, they signed fake certificates falsely claiming Trump won. They were picked again by Republicans to be electors this year, and will sign the authentic certificates.
The Electoral College meetings happening Tuesday in each state and Washington, DC, are a formality. The 538 electors will cast ballots for president and vice president as part of the process spelled out in the US Constitution and various federal and state laws.
The voting is largely ceremonial, but serving as an elector is an honor often bestowed upon party leaders and respected community members – not alleged criminals. CNN reached out to seek comment from all of the returning GOP electors from 2020.
The participation of these fake electors and diehard 2020 election deniers has drawn condemnation from some Democrats and liberal groups. Donald Sherman, chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it was a travesty.
Their role in the 2024 process, Sherman said, “is yet another chilling reminder that, despite the prosecutions of many individuals who stormed the Capitol on January 6, (2021), nearly every federal government institution failed to hold Donald Trump and his allies accountable for illegally attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”
In Michigan, the six fake-turned-real electors are former state GOP co-chair Meshawn Maddock; Marian Sheridan and Amy Facchinello, who have both been local party officials; John Haggard and Timothy King, who were plaintiffs in a frivolous lawsuit that tried to overturn the state’s 2020 election results; and dairy farmer Hank Choate.
They’re all facing felony forgery charges, brought by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat. They all deny wrongdoing. A state judge is expected to decide within the next few months whether the case is strong enough to proceed to trial.
“I’m proud of her,” Maddock’s attorney, Nick Somberg, said. “She is not afraid. It’s beautiful. It’s like poetic justice. It’s partial justice for her. The rest will come when we get this case dismissed. I think the only reason these charges were brought was to stop Trump from winning Michigan. They failed, and it’s time to take the loss and let this go.”
When emailed for comment, Haggard sent an automatic reply that said he was heading to Lansing to cast his electoral vote for Trump and that solicited donations to cover legal bills, saying, “SEND ME SOME MONEY.”
In Nevada, the fake-turned-real electors are state GOP chair Michael McDonald and Jesse Law, the GOP chair in Clark County, home to 70% of the state’s population.
They were both charged by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat. Ford refiled the criminal charges last week in Carson City, the state capital, after a Las Vegas-based judge threw out the original indictment, concluding it was brought in the wrong jurisdiction.
The five fake-turned-real electors in Pennsylvania are Bill Bachenberg, a GOP donor who has been tied to efforts in multiple states to breach election systems after 2020 in hopes of proving Trump’s fraud claims; state GOP vice chair Bernadette Comfort; and Ash Khare, Patricia Poprik and Andrew Reilly, who have been local GOP officials.
They weren’t charged because the sham certificates they signed in 2020 contained hedged language saying they were only acting in case Trump prevailed in court.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
