Posted as electors
Michigan indicts 16 Trump supporters
07/19/2023, 04:20 am
Donald Trump never tires of speaking of a “stolen presidential election”. It was he himself who tried to disregard the result of the vote. 16 of his supporters are now on trial for allegedly trying to illegally put Trump in office.
In the US state of Michigan, 16 suspects have been charged with trying to tip the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in favor of the losing then-incumbent Donald Trump. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the defendants secretly met in the basement of Michigan’s Republican Party headquarters in December 2020 and falsified voter certifications.
They explained that, as Trump voters, they were the legally elected voters in the state in the north of the United States, Nessel said. Democrat Joe Biden won the Michigan election. The accused then sent the lists to the US Senate in Washington and to the National Archives. According to the Attorney General, the 16 “false voters” are accused of, among other things, conspiracy to falsify elections and documents. The charges carry prison terms of between five and 14 years.
After the November 2020 presidential election, Trump and his supporters tried in various ways to override the election results. It was also about the votes of electors.
In the US, the president is elected indirectly: in each state, the citizens elect a group of electors who were previously determined by the respective parties. It is then the electors of the winning candidate who choose the President. Biden won 306 of the 538 electoral votes, including Michigan’s 16 electors. Trump got 232 electoral votes.
“The actions of the wrong voters have undermined public confidence in the integrity of our election,” said Michigan Attorney General Nessel. Similar attempts as in Michigan had been made in six other states with a close election result, including in southern Georgia. The judiciary there is likely to decide in August on possible charges of attempts to overturn the outcome of the presidential election. That could also affect Trump personally.
Trump expects charges
At the federal level, special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by the Justice Department, is investigating attempts to overturn the outcome of the presidential election, up to and including the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Radical Trump supporters stormed Congress when Biden’s election victory was about to be finally confirmed. Trump had previously said for weeks without any evidence that he had been the victim of massive election fraud and called on his supporters to march on the Capitol.
On Tuesday, the 77-year-old Republican said he expected indictments as part of the investigation. Smith informed him that he was officially the “target” of this investigation and gave him four days to appear before a so-called grand jury. That means “almost always an arrest and indictment,” Trump said. Smith’s office declined to comment Tuesday on the ex-president’s statement that he intends to run again in the 2024 presidential election. The special investigator had already obtained charges against Trump in June in the secret documents affair.