LANSING — Michigan House Republicans held a hearing Wednesday highlighting the cases of more than a dozen individuals who were charged as false electors after the 2020 election.
Lawmakers accused Attorney General Dana Nessel of acting politically by bringing those charges in 2023, which included felony charges of forgery.
The 16 Republicans signed onto a document after the 2020 election saying that President Trump had won the state.
Nessel said that the document was part of an effort to have Michigan’s 16 electoral votes awarded to Trump instead of Joe Biden.
After years of legal battles over the case, charges against the false electors were dismissed by a judge last week.
The testimony was heard in the Weaponization of State Government Committee, which was created by the Republican-controlled House.
Kevin Kijewski, an attorney who represented one of the false electors, argued before the committee that the electors’ document was a ‘conditional’ certificate that could be used if court challenges broke in favor of Trump.
“The alternate electors acted with the belief that their actions were lawful, protected by the First Amendment’s petition clause to seek redress of grievances and the constitutional framework for resolving election disputes,” he said. “No one was deceived, and no fraud was committed.”
Nessel has defended her decision to bring charges against the electors, saying after the dismissal that they sought to undermine the votes of millions of Michigan citizens.
Nessel also has pushed back on claims that the case was politically motivated, saying that it would’ve been wrong for her not to bring charges when she believed the law had been broken.