LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – William (Hank) Choate of Cement City, Michigan, is just a ten minute drive from the town of “Liberty.” However, it may seem much farther away than that now that his freedom is in jeopardy due to the charges filed against him by Michigan Democratic Attorney Dana Nessel.
David Kallman of Kallman Legal Group, who now represents Choate, calls the whole thing an “alternate slate electors case” containing “baseless” charges and is confident that his client will prevail and ultimately be “completely exonerated from this nakedly partisan prosecution.”
On July 18th, AG Nessel announced felony charges against 16 Michigan Republicans for their role in what she calls an alleged false electors scheme following the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The defendants are alleged to have met covertly in the basement of the Michigan Republican Party headquarters on December 14th and signed their names to multiple certificates stating they were the “duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan.” AG Nessel’s office says the false documents were then transmitted to the United States Senate and National Archives in a coordinated effort to award the state’s electoral votes to the candidate of their choosing in place of the candidates actually elected by the people of Michigan.
Nessel says about the charges, “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…The evidence will demonstrate there was no legal authority for the false electors to purport to act as ‘duly elected presidential electors’ and execute the false electoral documents.”
Kallman disagrees and says, “This frivolous prosecution was filed against political opponents without having the evidence necessary to prove the elements required to commit the alleged crimes.”
Kallman points out in the press release that state representative Rachelle Smit (a former election clerk) has publicly called the alternate electors a “back up slate” and affirmed “this is not a replacement.” Kallman says, “Mr. Choate’s actions were not done in secret. He acted openly and publicly at all times. Mr. Choate is charged with eight counts including forgery, uttering and publishing, and election forgery. Every felony count is a specific intent crime requiring the elector to have the “intent to injure or defraud” (Counts 1 through 5) or the ”intent to defraud” (Counts 6 through 8).”
Kallman continues, “Mr. Choate prepared no documents. He had no intent to injure or defraud anyone. No evidence will support this allegation. Mr. Choate maintained at all times he was merely fulfilling his duty as an alternate elector who might be called upon depending on the results of the then-pending challenges to the election results. He never asserted or claimed that he replaced the Democrat slate of electors.”
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Kallman adds, “There is historical precedent for alternate slates of electors. The same thing happened in 1960 in Hawaii when the Presidential election results were disputed. In that case, it was the Democrats who offered two alternate slates of electors depending on the result of Kennedy’s election challenge. Ultimately, one of the alternate slates of electors was accepted by Congress when President Kennedy was declared the winner. Ironically, it was then Vice-President Nixon who decided to accept the Democratic alternate elector slate in favor of his opponent.”
Kallman say about the charges from AG Nessel, “Mr. Choate is being wrongfully targeted in this political dispute. The Attorney General is weaponizing the legal system to attack ordinary citizens for simply following through on their nominated status as electors.”
Michigan News Source reached out to David Kallman about his representation of Choate and he added that AG Nessel’s own affidavit undermines the charges. Kallman has said from the get-go that in order for AG Nessel to prevail in her case, defendants had to specifically and knowing sign the electoral document submitted with the intent to defraud. He points to a paragraph in AG Nessel’s 14-page affidavit where there is a “key part” that destroys their own case describing the electors’ document as an alternate slate.
It reads, “On February 22, 2022, Mayra Rodriguez (one of the electors being charged) was interviewed by the January 6th Select Committee pursuant to an investigative subpoena about this document. She testified that Republican Candidates for electors met in the basement of the republican headquarters. Trump campaign aide, Shawn Flynn, spoke to the “Republican candidate for electors” at the Republican Headquarters in Lansing about an “alternate slate of electors.”
Kallman says, “That blows their case up.”
Kallman also says that Choate only had the signature page to sign and was never was given the opportunity to read the entire document. He says his client got a phone call from the state party and was asked to show up to do an alternate slate of electors. He’s then told to sign a signature page.
Kallman says that AG Nessel has to show that the electors knowingly signed a false document and that they had the specific intent to “injure or defraud” which is defined in the Michigan penal code. He doesn’t believe she will be successful doing either, especially as it pertains to his client.
Additionally, in another two paragraph of AG Nessel’s affidavit, is information on a previous case involving three electors who filed a complaint on November 29, 2020 who alleged voter fraud and asked for decertification of the results of the election based on overwhelming evidence of election tampering. The court denied their motions on December 7th.
AG Nessel says that the Michigan Republican Party shared this information between leadership and committees and says the MIGOP leadership “knew prior to their meeting on December 14, 2020 there was no legal reason to create an alternate slate of electors.”
Kallman says AG Nessel is using this previous case to show that the Republican electors had an intent to defraud which he calls “laughable.” He said that decisions from trial judges get overturned all the time on appeal and adds, “There were lawsuits all over the place that were challenging the election.”
So, as the case move forwards in court, Choate looks to constitutional attorney David Kallman to make sure that Liberty – as well as Freedom Township in Michigan, will not soon be out of reach.
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