Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she thinks the fake electors she charged for their efforts to keep former President Donald Trump as president after the 2020 election were "brainwashed" and "still think they're right."
Nessel spoke at a virtual event held Monday by Protectors of Equality in Government to discuss the "messaging" surrounding the 2020 election, months after she charged 16 people who signed letters claiming Trump won the election.
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“People talk a lot about, oh, 'Why don’t you start flipping some of those people so that they can become witnesses against the remaining defendants, the worst-acting defendants?'” Nessel said, according to a recording of the event obtained by CNN. “The problem is, these are people who have been brainwashed.”
"How do you flip someone who concedes that they did everything that they’re accused of doing, but what they say is, ‘We believe that we were in the right. We think that Donald Trump is the real winner of the election’?" Nessel continued.
Nessel announced charges against Kathleen Berden, William Choate, Amy Marie Facchinello, Clifford Frost Jr., Stanley Grot, John Haggard, Mari-ann McQuater Henry, Timothy King, Michele Goder Lundgren, Meshawn Maddock, James Robbins Renner, Mayra Adela Rodriguez, Rose Rook, Marian Sheridan, Kenneth Thompson, and Kent Vanderwood in July.
Each elector was charged with eight felony counts, including forgery, conspiracy to commit forgery, and election law forgery. Some of the charges carry jail sentences of 14 years each and/or a $10,000 fine.
Nessel said some of the electors "genuinely believe that" Trump won in 2020, making a plea difficult.
"Somebody can’t even plead guilty if they wanted to because they can’t admit that what they did violated the law because they still think they’re right," Nessel said.
Lundgren, a 73-year-old photographer from Detroit, claimed she was "duped" by a lawyer into signing a notecard and that her signature was lifted onto the fake elector documents. However, Nessel has dismissed these claims, saying her office has evidence the electors knew what they were doing and purposely signed on as fake electors.
The 16 electors have pleaded not guilty to the charges, while some of them continue to peddle false claims about the 2020 election. Hearings are set for October and November as the 16 cases all progress toward trials.
Nessel touted the Democratic-leaning jury pool in Lansing, where she filed the charges, and compared it to the recent acquittal of three men who were charged in their connection with the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI).
"Ingham County, where Lansing was located, is a very, very Democratic-leaning county,” Nessel said. “But I worry that there will be people who just won’t care that they clearly violated the law because they believe that the ends justify the means. And that, you know, it’s OK to do as long as the end game is getting this autocrat into office.”
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Kevin Kijewski, an attorney for Frost, called Nessel’s remarks “disturbing” and believes some of her comments could help him fight the charges.
"This seems to be more of a political calculation by the attorney general, as opposed to trying to seek out the truth and adjudicate this case on the merits,” Kijewski said, adding that Nessel’s “brainwashed” remark is “not only defamatory but also damaging to the trust that people have in our judicial system, and to the rule of law.”