Politics - News Analysis

Fake GOP Electors Could Face Nearly 20 Years in Prison Over Election Forgery: Michigan AG

Kids, don’t forge documents. Name one time in history that forging a document has actually worked out positively for the person committing the crime.

It has only been three days since FBI Special Agent Rachel Maddow… wait, it is investigative journalist and commentator Rachel Maddow, which ought to shame the sh*t out of the FBI, discovered the forged electoral college certificates and we already see the first referrals from the states to DOJ for criminal prosecution.

Now, what is DOJ going to do? Say, “No. Not enough evidence.”? No, DOJ has done its absolute best to ignore the fact that the insurrection that occurred in this country started at or near the top doesn’t have the luxury anymore of ignoring the most serious crime against our government in history.

Michigan is referring its 16 “electors” (the forged ones) over to the feds for prosecution. According to Michigan A.G. Dana Nessel:

“I will tell you that we’ve been evaluating charges for nearly a year now based on these activities.”

*Um, why are we first hearing about it now? We suspect it is because she did not know it was part of a much larger place coordinated by someone in Washington.

“I will say that under state law, I think clearly you have forgery of a public record, which is a 14-year offense, and election law forgery, which is a five-year offense. But what we have decided to do with the investigation, in light of the fact that of course we have seen … various different false slates of electors from several different states, in what seems to be a coordinated effort between the Republican parties in various different states, we think this is a matter that is best investigated and potentially prosecuted by the feds.”

14 years and 5 years, well, that’s almost decades in prison.

This is obviously the best decision with any complex crime that crosses state lines.

Nessel seems to expect that the DOJ will aggressively investigate and prosecute the case because she noted that they can “use the information they already have to better understand exactly what happened that day, so that federal charges can be evaluated.”

“We had thought that it was very possible that we would be bringing charges, and we still might. Of course, there’s no double jeopardy if you are to bring both state and federal charges for the same offense.

One almost gets the feeling that she doesn’t believe DOJ wants to investigate these cases, doesn’t one?

But obviously this is part of a much bigger conspiracy, and our hope is that the federal authorities, the Department of Justice and United States Attorney General Merrick Garland will take this in coordination with all of the information they’ve received, and make an evaluation as to what charges these individuals might face. I mean, I can think of many — forgery of a public record for the purposes of defrauding the United States, or conspiracy to commit an offense to defraud the United States — and there are so many others, but that will be up to the feds to decide.”

Wire fraud, conspiracy, impersonating a state official… the charges go on and on. And yes, one would “hope” that the DOJ might be interested in investigating a case in which one party attempted to overthrow the elected government.

Forgive us for sounding so cynical, but we have been reporting on DOJ’s inaction in the face of overwhelming evidence for months. The very fact that MI had to refer this case to DOJ tells us volumes. DOJ didn’t have an open file, and we’ll never buy a story where someone tells us that they didn’t know.

meet the author

Nicole Hickman James is a lifelong Democrat and political activist who first cut her teeth as a teenager volunteering for Mike Dukakis’ presidential campaign. She has worked and volunteered for John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, HFA (Hillary For America), and Organizing For Action. She’s passionate about liberal and progressive causes and considers President Obama her favorite president ever. She holds her Bachelor’s from Boston College in Economics and her Master's from Columbia, also in Economics. When not working as a writer, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her three college-aged children.

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