LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Amidst the charges that former President Trump said in a Truth Social post will coming at him soon by special counsel Jack Smith regarding the January 6th investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, was an announcement by Michigan Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel that 16 Michigan residents have been charged with felonies in their role in the alleged false electors scheme following that election.

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Listed amongst the 16 people charged are Trump supporters, a Michigan Republican National Committee woman, the mayor of Wyoming, the grassroots vice chairwoman of the Michigan GOP and Meshawn Maddock, the former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

The affidavit in support of the complaint says that several MIGOP employees were interviewed and confirmed that “MIGOP Chairperson Laura Cox and the Republican National Committee organized a meeting of the 16 Republican electors on December 14, 2020 at the Republican headquarters building in Lansing” and that Maddock and others were seen ushered into the basement by GOP staff.

The affidavit continues by saying that Maddock and Marian Sheridan appeared on the Right-Side Broadcasting News program and both admitted convening at the Republican building in Lansing on December 14, 2020 and casting their vote for President Trump with the 14 other electors. They carried their electoral ballot to the Michigan Capitol building in an effort to deliver it to the Senate Chambers but were denied entry.

On or about December 15, 2020, Meshawn Maddock and Marian Sheridan were interviewed about their involvement on December 14, 2020. The affidavit states that Maddock admitted that the 16 Republican candidates for elector gathered, “held our caucus,” and “certified their ballots for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.” She also admitted that they went to the state Capitol, introduced themselves as “electors,” but were denied entrance. Sheridan said they were blocked from the Michigan Capitol.

The affidavit continues, “None of the 16 people who signed the document entitled ‘Certificate Of The Votes Of The 2020 Electors From Michigan’ and was sent certified mail to the National Archives and Records Administration and the United States Senate Archives were legally elected or qualified as the 2020 Michigan Electors for President and Vice-President.”

Because of that, AG Nessel says that each defendant has been charged with one count of Conspiracy to Commit Forgery, a 14-year felony; two counts of Forgery, a 14-year felony; one count of Conspiracy to Commit Uttering and Publishing, a 14-year felony; one count of Uttering and Publishing, a 14-year felony; one count of Conspiracy to Commit Election Law Forgery, a 5-year felony; and two counts of Election Law Forgery, a 5-year felony for a combined total of 85 years in prison is convicted.

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The odd thing is that Laura Cox, who the affidavit says organized the meeting isn’t charged with anything – and her name is only mentioned once in the 14-page filing.

On the syndicated radio talk show “The Steve Gruber Show,” on Wednesday morning, Gruber talked about an interview he had with Maddock on Tuesday night. She said, “This is a political prosecution…persecution…and not a criminal persecution.” She said that the charges were about Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Jack Smith, Gretchen Whitmer and Dana Nessel and that they are “adversaries of President Trump and they are just using me and these electors to try to further their persecution about him…They want to use me to hurt him.”

Maddock went on to say, “It’s our judicial system being used as a weapon against its own people.”

Attorney David Kallman of the Kallman Legal Group talked with Gruber about the charges and told him that what’s not being said in the media is that the charges include a very important requirement, called specific “intent” that’s needed in order for the defendants to be proven guilty. He says the charges require specific intent to defraud or intent to defraud and injure. That language can be seen in the Michigan law that was cited in the affidavit’s list of charges including here and here.

Kallman said, “They (defendants) had to specifically and knowingly sign that electoral document that was submitted to the National Archives and to the federal government that they knew it was being done with the intent to defraud. I think that’s going to be a very tough hill for the attorney general’s office to climb. In fact, in that clip you played just a few minutes ago from AG Nessel, she acknowledged very much that ‘they may have thought they were doing the right thing and they may have been doing it because they thought the election was being contested but that doesn’t matter’ but guess what, it DOES matter.”

Kallman is referring to AG Nessel’s statement about what the defendants believed to be true when they submitted the document. Additionally, reports have claimed that the strategy to submit the documents was approved by attorneys and organized by the Michigan Republican Party’s chairwoman at the time, Laura Cox.

In her statement Nessel said, “These defendants may have believed the now long-debunked myths of vote tampering or ballot dumps. They may have felt compelled to follow the call to action from a President they held fealty to. They may have even genuinely believed that this was their patriotic duty. But none of those reasons or feelings provide legal justification to violate the law and upend our constitution and our nation’s traditions of representative government, self-determination, and a government by the people.”

AG Nessel said about the charges in her press release, “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. My department has prosecuted numerous cases of election law violations throughout my tenure, and it would be malfeasance of the greatest magnitude if my department failed to act here in the face of overwhelming evidence of an organized effort to circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of Michigan voters in a presidential election.”

Nessel went on to say, “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. Every serious challenge to the election had been denied, dismissed, or otherwise rejected by the time the false electors convened. There was no legitimate legal avenue or plausible use of such a document or an alternative slate of electors. There was only the desperate effort of these defendants, who we have charged with deliberately attempting to interfere with and overturn our free and fair election process, and along with it, the will of millions of Michigan voters. That the effort failed and democracy prevailed does not erase the crimes of those who enacted the false electors plot.”

Maddock also spoke to Fox 2 Detroit and told them a different story than what Nessel is claiming. Maddock said, “We didn’t do anything wrong. We know we didn’t do anything wrong. We’re not fake electors. I was a duly elected Trump elector. There was no forgery involved.” She continued, “Secret meeting – no there was no secret meeting. These were Trump electors, duly elected Trump electors who met and it’s all very public. It was on Facebook. I haven’t taken anything down from that day. We met and we turned in paperwork. It was meant to be put alongside with the democrat electors.”

Nessel said in her press release that this remains an ongoing investigation and that the “Michigan Department of Attorney General has not ruled out potential charges against additional defendants. Each of the 16 charged defendants will next appear in 54-A District Court in Ingham County for individual arraignments. No dates have yet been set by the court for subsequent proceedings.”