The 16 defendants, who tried to give Donald Trump additional votes in 2020 against Joe Biden, face multiple charges, including criminal association, and forgery and use of forgery. They face up to 14 years in prison.
Sixteen supporters of former Republican President Donald Trump have been charged in Michigan (including for falsifying documents) in connection with the “false voters” case, aimed at reversing the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The charges announced in this state in the north of the United States are the first against participants in the project which tried (in an illegitimate way) to proclaim Donald Trump winner in seven American states.
If this project had succeeded, the Republican would have kept the White House at the expense of Joe Biden.
The scheme’s failure is seen as one of the triggering events for the assault on the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Joe Biden’s victory was certified.
“Rejecting the will of voters and undermining democracy”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said that about three weeks before Jan. 6, 2021, the 16 defendants met “secretly” in the basement of Michigan’s Republican Party headquarters. They had then signed documents in which they certified to be electors of Michigan, she said.
These false certificates were then sent to the United States Senate with the aim of having their votes counted instead of those of the real voters of Michigan, and thus proclaiming Donald Trump the winner in this state.
In the United States, the president is chosen by indirect universal suffrage, with each state allocating its electors, whose number depends essentially on its population, to the candidate who comes first locally.
“This scheme to deny the will of voters and undermine democracy was fraudulent and without legal basis,” the Michigan attorney general said.
Source: BFM TV
