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Decisions on Michigan’s fraudulent voter cases will likely come in 2025

Online Niel October 25, 2024

Lansing — A judge’s rulings on the future of criminal charges against 15 Michigan Republicans whose signatures appeared on a certificate falsely claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential race won’t come before the 2024 election, and they appear to be arriving in 2025.

Ingham County District Court Judge Kristen Simmons held three sets of preliminary hearings for Republicans who are faces criminal forgery charges after attending a meeting at GOP headquarters in Michigan on December 14, 2020. The document they signed during the gathering was ultimately used by Trump advisers in an unsuccessful attempt to reverse his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Through the review process, Simmons must determine whether Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office has provided enough evidence to show there is probable cause to believe murders occurred for the cases to go to trial.

Preliminary examinations for six of the 15 Republicans, including former Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock and former Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, ended after six days of testimony and arguments in April. Exams for six others ended the following June seven days of testimony.

The final round of exams, focused on three of the 15 people, finished on October 9.

But Simmons is accepting written arguments from both prosecutors and defense attorneys before making decisions about whether the cases can proceed.

In an email to attorneys Monday, a Simmons staff member said the attorney general’s office would have until Nov. 25 to file its written reports on the first group of six lying voters. Defense attorneys will then have until Dec. 30 to file their own briefs.

December 30 is the second to last day of the year.

The Attorney General’s Office will have until Dec. 30 to file briefs on the second group of six GOP voters. Lawyers for those people will then have until January 30 to file their own papers.

Finally, the Attorney General’s Office will have until Jan. 30 to file briefs on the third group of three GOP voters. The lawyers for those people will have until March 3 to file their own documents.

It is unclear whether Simmons will rule on all 15 cases at the same time. If that happens, her decisions wouldn’t come until after March 3. If she rules on the three groups of individuals separately, the first set of decisions on the first six fraudulent voters would come sometime after Dec. 30.

On July 18, 2023, Nessel he announced eight felony charges against each of the 16 Republicans whose names appeared on the fake voter certificate. One voter, James Renner of Lansing, reached a cooperation agreement with Nessel’s officeand the charges against him were dropped.

“The actions of voter fraud have undermined public confidence in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, have clearly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan,” Nessel said. in July 2023.

However, the voter defense lawyers argued that their clients did not intend to defraud anyone, did not fully understand what certificate they were signing on December 14, 2020, and acted only on the guidance of the Moldovan campaign lawyers.

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