The Wisconsin Attorney General is investigating “fake voters” who submitted a false slate of Electoral College votes after the 2020 presidential election and claimed that former President Donald Trump won the state, according to a CNN report published on Friday. This comes as part of a series of states where fake voters and others now face the threat of criminal charges and convictions years after the election.
Investigations in Other States
Charges have been brought against 16 Republican officials who acted as fake voters in Michigan after the 2020 presidential election, with criminal charges filed in July, although one defendant had their charges dropped in October after reaching a “cooperation agreement” with prosecutors. In Arizona, Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes has formed a committee to investigate attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and the fake voter scheme in the state. In Nevada, charges were brought against six Republicans responsible for the state’s fake voter slate, following weeks of reports in November that Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford was conducting a “secret investigation” into the fake voters, even after Ford previously testified that he did not believe there were any state laws that could be used to address the behavior of fake voters. In New Mexico, CNN reported that Democratic Attorney General Raúl Torrez is still investigating the fake voter scheme, confirming a previous report in local media Source NM that the Attorney General was “investigating the allegations under state law” after the state referred questions related to fake voters to federal prosecutors.
Criminal Investigation in Wisconsin
According to the CNN report, there is a criminal investigation in the state against the fake voters, according to anonymous sources, and it appears that Cheesebro is cooperating with prosecutors (the Attorney General’s office has not publicly confirmed the inquiry). Republican officials have also reached a civil settlement against them, prompting the fake voters to withdraw their electoral list and publicly announce that President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
Federal Investigations
In addition to state-level investigations, charges have been brought against Trump in federal court for his and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, including through the fake voter scheme, but no charges have been brought against anyone else in this case.
What to Watch For
Court proceedings are still ongoing in Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada, and voters in Michigan and Georgia who still have pending charges and have not reached agreements with the prosecutors maintain their innocence. It remains unclear what the timeline will be for investigations in Arizona and New Mexico, and whether any charges will be brought at all. “This is not something we will enter with the idea of ‘maybe we’ll get a conviction’ or ‘maybe we have a very good chance,’” said Dan Barr, Arizona’s Deputy Attorney General, to the Washington Post in July regarding the possibility of charges in the state investigation. “It has to be airtight.” It is also possible that the states that have already brought charges could add additional charges; in addition to Wisconsin, Cheesebro may be cooperating with investigations in Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada in hopes of avoiding charges in those states.
What We Don’t Know
Despite the charges, it remains unclear whether the voters will ultimately be convicted in Michigan, Georgia, and Nevada. Legal experts have noted that Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel in Michigan may have weakened the state’s case when she said at an event in September with activists that she believes the fake voters “were brainwashed” and that their cases would be heard by jurors from “a county that leans heavily Democratic.” “It undermines the validity of her accusation theory,” said former federal prosecutor Shan Wu to CNN. “If you believe these people were brainwashed, they did not have the right mental state and could not form the criminal intent to commit the crime.” (Nessel did not comment on the statements.)
Fact
Amazing
Fake electors under investigation in New Mexico may face greater chances of charges against them, as Republican officials in the state and Pennsylvania have taken more steps to legally protect themselves from fake voters than officials in other states. Most of the alternative electors in those states submitted affidavits declaring they were “officially selected electors” for the state, despite not being so, as Biden had already won the state and not Trump. Pennsylvania and New Mexico fortified their certifications by stating they were an alternative list of electors in case Biden’s victory was overturned in both states, according to documents published by the American Oversight government monitoring group. This means that while most electors now face scrutiny for forging government documents – claiming to be legitimate electors when they were not – those in these two states may not be legally prosecuted, as noted by Josh Shapiro, the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, who was the Deputy Attorney General at the time, to CNN in 2022.
Further Reading
– Nevada attorney general is investigating false electors who aided Trump in 2020 (Politico)
– Arizona escalates probe into alleged efforts to swing election for Trump (Washington Post)
– Michigan Charges Fake Electors Who Tried To Overturn 2020 Election (Forbes)
– How Trump’s ‘Fake Electors’—Reportedly Ordered To Operate In ‘Complete Secrecy’—Could Be Punished (Forbes)
– The Fake Electors Scheme, Explained (New York Times)
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