Though a preliminary examination is a prosecutor’s opportunity to convince a judge that a crime was committed and that the accused party committed said crime, things may not have gone entirely according to plan for Assistant Attorney General LaDonna Logan.
The preliminary exam for six Michigan Republican electors charged with election forgery was conducted on Dec. 13 and 14 in a tiny courtroom presided over by Lansing District Court Judge Kristen Simmons, a Democrat.
The cramped courtroom was filled on both days by about 30 people, including six defendants and their lawyers, five representatives from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office, several reporters, the usual court personnel, and others.
During his testimony, prosecution witness Tony Zammit repeatedly made statements from the stand that seemed to absolve the 15 Michigan Trump electors still charged with eight felony counts.
Mr. Zammit served as the communications director of the Republican Party of Michigan in 2020 and was in the building on Dec. 14, 2020, when the electors signed important documents expressing their belief that, in reality, Donald Trump won Michigan and consequently, their electoral votes for him should be counted.
In an earlier interview with The Epoch Times, one defense attorney called the electors’ action a “political protest.”
Ms. Logan characterizes those documents as “the body of the crime.”
At least twice, Mr. Zammit said that the Dec. 14, 2020, gathering of the GOP electors in Lansing—Michigan’s state capital—was never intended to be portrayed as an official meeting of the state’s electors.
Mr. Zammit testified that there was “no plan to replace the Democrat electors with Republican electors.” He said the GOP electors assembled on Dec. 14 in Lansing were putting themselves forward as a “placeholder” or “contingency” slate in the event the official Michigan election result was reversed.
At the time of the meeting, a myriad of complaints of voter fraud were the subject of multiple ongoing investigations, and several court cases were as yet unresolved.
In his testimony, Mr. Zammit explained that the electors signed documents on Dec. 14, 2020, out of concern that the people of Michigan might be disenfranchised by losing their electoral votes if the state’s official election result was eventually reversed and Donald Trump was declared the winner.
Mr. Zammit said the documents signed by the electors indicated that they were “willing to serve if evidence was found in a court of law to overturn the election.”
The signing took place in the GOP headquarters building at the very time that Michigan’s Democrat electors were meeting in the nearby State Capitol Building to cast their 16 votes for Joe Biden.
The GOP electors and the general public were barred from the Capitol Building.
Upset by a subsequent barrage of negative media reports in which the Republican electors were being cast by the press as having knowingly committed a crime, Mr. Zammit testified, “That’s not the case … some were not criminally culpable …The vast majority was not culpable. They went along with the lawyers leading the meeting.”
Mr. Zammit testified that he made then Congresswoman Liz Cheney of the January 6 Committee, as well as the Michigan Attorney General’s office, aware of his concerns.
When called by prosecutors as a witness, Laura Cox, who was chairperson of the Michigan GOP in 2020, also told the court that nothing was planned to somehow replace the Democrat electors with Republican electors unless an overturning of the election results triggered the action.
Forgery or Political Tactic?
As evidence, prosecutors presented the two-page document signed by the electors. It was printed in black ink on ordinary bond paper. Those plain pages stood in marked contrast to the ornate, official, State of Michigan-issued Certificate of Votes, along with its attached Certificate of Ascertainment signed by the governor, that the defense offered as evidence.The documents submitted by the defense were the colorful, official certificates sent to Washington D.C. by Michigan government officials following the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. They both consisted of a single page embossed with the golden Great Seal of the State of Michigan and bordered on all sides by blue brocade.
One defense attorney stated that he’d be pleased to frame and hang on his wall such a decorative document. His point being that the defendants accused of forgery made no effort to replicate the embellishments of the official state certification form and, therefore, demonstrated no intent to deceive or defraud anyone.
Because Donald Trump won the state in 2016 by a hotly disputed 10,000-vote margin over Hillary Clinton, the official electoral college certification notice sent to Congress that year displayed the signatures of Michigan’s Republican electors.
No Intent to Forge, Deceive, or Defraud
As was evident from the exhibits entered into the record, the alleged forgers made no effort to counterfeit or falsify the official state documents or the 2020 Democrat electors’ signatures. Rather, they signed their own names on page two of a two-page document that is what it claims to be and that bears no resemblance to the official state certifications.Michigan’s statute describing election law forgery offenses states that the accused must have knowingly made, filed, or published a false document with the intent to defraud.
Also, the document must knowingly contain a false signature with the intent to defraud.
The Email that Sparked the Prosecution
The impetus for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, to initiate an investigation into the actions of the GOP electors was a notification from Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater.Mr. Brater testified that on Jan. 8, 2021, shortly after he assumed his current position, he received an email “from an individual at the National Archives” containing what Mr. Brater described as an “unusual” document concerning a separate slate of electors from Michigan. He said his initial impression was that it was not criminal and that it may be some kind of civil problem.
Though Mr. Brater answers directly to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, he said he first contacted a lawyer from the civil division of the AG’s office.
From there, the case made its way to the Ingham County Prosecutor’s office and to the desks of two U.S. Attorneys from two different districts, all of whom decided not to pursue criminal charges against the electors.
Then in July 2023, 941 days after the alleged crime was committed, Ms. Nessel indicted all 16 of the 2020 Republican electors on eight felony counts of election forgery.
Precedent of Hawaii in 1960
Defense attorneys asked Mr. Brater about the 1960 presidential election in which Republican Richard Nixon was declared and certified as the winner of the popular vote in the state of Hawaii.After certification, and before a recount was completed, the Democratic Party of Hawaii submitted a “placeholder” slate of electors in case the election result should be overturned in favor of Democrat John F. Kennedy.
Ultimately, Mr. Kennedy was found to have won the popular vote, and he was awarded the Aloha State’s electoral votes.
According to defense attorneys, had Hawaii Democrats not offered up a just-in-case slate, their state’s electoral votes would not have been considered, and their representation in the electoral college would have been lost that year.
Not a Pure Democracy
Though the name Donald Trump appeared on the Nov. 3, 2020 ballot, people voting for him were actually voting for a slate of presidential electors who would cast their votes for Mr. Trump in the event he won the state’s popular vote.The Republican Party met in a virtual convention in August 2020 to elect its presidential electors. The Democratic Party also put forward its own slate of presidential electors.
The electors, duly elected by each party, were then certified to the secretary of state as having been duly elected and ready to serve if their party’s candidate for president should prevail in the general election. Each elector was sent a certificate of election from the secretary of state.
The prosecution has tried to make a case that the Republican electors are a fake slate that falsely claim they were duly elected, but the defense showed the court documentation that proved they were duly elected by the Michigan Republican Party convention in August 2020.
The ordeal is far from over for the six electors whose preliminary examination will continue on Feb. 13 and 14, 2024.
They are John Haggard, 82, Michele Lundgren, 73, Kathy Berden, 70, Mary Ann Henry, 65, Amy Facchinello, 55, and Meshsawn Maddock, 55.
The court dates vary for the remainder of the electors.
