By Elizabeth Dallam-Ayoub, MFE Director of Communications | July 19, 2023
By Elizabeth Dallam-Ayoub, MFE Director of Communications | July 19, 2023
On July 18 Dana Nessel, Michigan's Attorney General, filed suit against 16 Republican electors whom she called “false electors.” The move comes on the heels of news that President Joe Biden’s Justice Department might soon indict and arrest former President Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
AG Nessel’s media release stated, “The false electors’ actions undermined the public’s faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan.” Although the list of charges sounds intimidating, it appears to boil down to claiming the electors’ committed a crime when they signed a backup document after the 2020 election.
The Oakland County Prosecutor described Nessel’s action as an “egregious abuse of power” on WJR’s Guy Gordon show this morning. Even more disturbing, one has to wonder if Nessel’s action is part of a partisan collusive effort to silence opposition nationwide.
“This should terrify all Americans, regardless of their political beliefs,” wrote author John Daniel Davidson in The Federalist today in reference to the impending charges against former President Donald Trump for his involvement in the January 6 riots in Washington, D.C.
Put bluntly, if Biden’s DOJ arrests Trump, the president’s main political rival heading into the 2024 election, it will trigger a political and electoral crisis unlike any America has ever faced. It’s not too much to say that such a move would not only imperil the upcoming presidential election but the republic itself. Jailing political rivals is what happens in tinpot dictatorships like Nicaragua, where President Daniel Ortega’s political rivals often find themselves arrested and imprisoned on charges of treason.
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This would not be the first time AG Nessel has weaponized her office for political purposes. After the contested 2020 Presidential race, in overt violation of constitutionally guaranteed free speech, she recommended sanctions against any attorney who brought lawsuits that relied on "conspiracy theories and misinformation" in a failed attempt to overturn the state's election in favor of then-President Donald Trump.
Under Michigan law, each presidential candidate has a set of 16 electors. Biden electors vote for Biden; Trump electors vote for Trump. The slate of electors chosen to vote for the president depends on which candidate won the most votes in the state. Biden electors were selected during an unusual process in which the Lansing Capitol was closed due to COVID, so Governor Whitmer certified the election rather than the state legislature.
The Republican Trump electors say they signed a statement as a backup in case one of the lawsuits contesting Biden's victory prevailed, and Trump was determined to have carried Michigan.
The Hall of Justice Learning Center in the heart of Lansing depicts what the judicial branch of government does. A statue of Lady Justice serves as a centerpiece of the museum. The scales she holds in one hand symbolize the fair and balanced administration of justice. Lady Justice wears a blindfold, and visitors are told that our system of justice is blind to individual differences. No matter what people look like, no matter what they think, no matter what they say—everyone has the same rights under the law. Lady Justice, blind and balanced, represents our state’s and our country’s impartial rule of law.
Where is the AG’s zeal to prosecute the unlawful actions of those in her own Democrat party? Surely Nessel has a full plate of more pressing crimes from which to choose. A state senator recently confided to an MFE director that Michigan is “the second most corrupt state in the nation.” Considering the long list of contenders for the top spots of shame, how disturbing to learn that our great state ranks Number Two.
A few contributing factors include that Michigan ranks seventh in the nation for calls to a human trafficking hotline. Human Trafficking in Michigan: Complete Prevention Guide | Human Trafficking Front. The state’s school system ranks 27th in the nation.
We rank second in drug use.
FBI crime statistics rank Lansing the 17th most violent city in America.
Instead, Nessel decided to charge 16 citizen volunteers who felt they were doing their civic duty and fulfilling their responsibilities under the U.S. Constitution. These Trump electors were caught in a time of Covid shutdowns. The Capitol was closed. Everything was under lockdown unless you were a big box store or the husband of the governor trying to launch his boat. Lawsuits contesting the election were flying.
These 16 regular people range in age from 55 to 82 and face up to 94 years in prison. Many are in poor health. Without the pro bono support of the Thomas More Society, few could afford an attorney, let alone one who could hold his or her own against the AG's taxpayer-funded battalion of 500 lawyers and investigators.
In case these indictments are AG Nessel’s misdirected attempt to clean up Michigan's elections, here are some worthy issues she might pursue:
Our voter rolls have more registered and active voters than our state's voting-aged population (CVAP).
How about investigating the administration of Ann Arbor’s 2022 elections? In Ann Arbor Compromises Election Integrity during 2022 Election, MFE investigators documented these legal violations:
1. Late registrations. Late ballots. The clerk unlawfully registered at least 600 voters and allowed them to vote absentee after the deadline of 8:00 pm on election day. Nearly 200 students registered and voted on Nov. 9. (Violates MCL 168.731(3).)
2. Unequal application of election law. The Ann Arbor clerk catered to one demographic of college students, known to vote for Democrats, when she set up two clerk satellite offices on or very near college campus. The clerk set up no similar satellite offices for senior citizens who clearly had greater need. Her actions were discriminatory against the seniors and all other demographic groups. (Violates MCL 168.509dd).)
3. Re-registrations. The clerk unlawfully re-registered at least 180 voters on election day who were already registered to vote in Ann Arbor. (Violates MCL 168.761(3).) The clerk’s own website posted the correct procedure, but the clerk chose to violate the law and re-register voters within a different precinct within Ann Arbor anyway.
4. Electioneering. Students were enticed to vote with goods of value, including pizza, water, and blankets. Violates MCL 168.931(1)(a) The pizzas were purchased by the Washtenaw County Democratic party. Here is a YouTube video to prove it.
In November 2018, Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment stipulating, in part, “the right to have the results of statewide elections audited, in such manner as prescribed by law, to ensure the accuracy and integrity of elections.” In 2020 and 2021, despite Michiganders filing thousands of petitions requesting an audit of the 2020 election, our secretary of state performed a risk-limiting audit. An RLA allows auditors to take as many as three randomly selected balloting samples until they can affirm the certified election results. No auditor would call an RLA a real audit, yet this was apparently fine with AG Nessel.
The Attorney General takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of both the United States and of Michigan. By her own website, AG Nessel’s job is safeguarding the public from violent criminals, helping victims of crime, leading the fight against human trafficking and opioid abuse, preserving Michigan’s spectacular resources, protecting consumers and addressing illegal business practices.
Citizens of Michigan, rest assured. While this state ranks seventh in the nation for human trafficking, while this state’s school system is failing miserably, while Lansing is moving upward in the ranks of this nation’s most dangerous cities, while election fraud was committed in Ann Arbor and no new laws will protect the same violations from happening again, and while opioid abuse is still rampant, AG Nessel with her laser-focused system of justice is tracking down the nasty conservatives who believe differently than she does. So much for all this howling about the need to move on from the 2020 election.
Under AG Nessel’s rule, Lady Justice in Michigan is no longer blind, and she appears to have gone onto life support.