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Politico reported that “the National Archives sent emails to the Arizona secretary of state on Dec. 11, 2020, passing along the forged certificates ‘for your awareness’ and informing the state officials the Archives would not accept them.”
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow asks three important questions about the recent findings.
One, was this legal? Two, who helped these GOP groups? Maddow points out that the documents were identical, with matching fonts and formats. And three, how many other states with MAGA-supporters are willing to pull off this forgery?
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Tuesday she believed there is “absolutely” enough evidence to charge 16 Republicans for submitting false certificates alleging Trump won the election in 2020.
Nessel gave federal prosecutors her evidence of a year-long investigation into the forgeries and those claiming to be Michigan electors. She has additionally said her office is considering bringing charges on the state level against the group, which includes the co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party.
“If it became clear to me that there was not going to be any accountability federally … I think it would be incumbent upon my department to move forward on this,” Nessel said in a Tuesday press conference. “These are incredibly serious charges. The gravity of this situation, I don’t think can possibly be overstated as to what it means for our system of elections. We know how close we came to this being successful.”
David Schultz, a professor of political science at Hamline University, tells Wisconsin State Journal that U.S. Code also allows Congress to intervene if there is a serious dispute over electors. He adds that although it’s likely Wisconsin statutes don’t specifically mention a group of electors falsely claiming to be electors, it does constitute an act of fraud.
“It’s probably some type of fraud, probably some type of criminal forgery,” said Schultz, who also teaches election law at the University of Minnesota Schools of Law.
Republican Party of Wisconsin chair Paul Farrow in a statement Monday said the Republicans who signed the documents were advised to do so by attorneys and the actions “were done in accordance with precedent.”
“That Democrats are now trying to fabricate a story from a simple procedure is nothing more than a desperate attempt to divert attention from their record as they face the electorate in 2022,” Farrow said. “It’s a frivolous complaint that doesn’t deserve the time of day.”
It was previously reported by Newsweek in December that Mark Meadows was endorsing the idea of alternate electors.
According to the House committee, Meadows sent emails and texts about “alternate electors” to Congress in 2020, allegedly saying, “I love it,” about an idea to an unidentified member of Congress.
“Mr. Meadows received text messages and emails regarding apparent efforts to encourage Republican legislators in certain States to send alternate slates of electors to Congress, a plan which one Member of Congress acknowledged was ‘highly controversial’ and to which Mr. Meadows responded, ‘I love it,'” the committee report reads.
“Mr. Meadows responded to a similar message by saying ‘[w]e are’ and another such message by saying ‘Yes. Have a team on it,'” it said.
Last week, Arizona Republic reporter Richard Ruelas from 12-News caught up with state Rep. Jake Hoffman, who was one of the Republicans who signed a fake election “certification” alleging he was a GOP elector appointed for Trump’s nonexistent win in Arizona.
When Ruelas jumped on Hoffman’s ass about his involvement, demanding he explain his authority, Hoffmann actually had the nerve to say: “In unprecedented times, unprecedented action occurs.”
Adding: “There is no case law … as to when an election that is currently being litigated in the courts has due standing, which is why we felt it appropriate to provide Congress and the Vice President with dueling opinions.”
Grilled by Ruelas about who gave him his orders, Hoffman replied, “I was one of the electors. I’m not in charge of the electors. So you would need to ask the party chair that,” which he repeated several times and then ran off.
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