2 charged in false elector scheme appear before judge in Michigan

LANSING, Mich. — Two Michigan Republicans charged with purporting to be electors for President Donald Trump in 2020 appeared before a state judge Friday, adding to a flurry of court action this week tied to efforts to overturn the last presidential election.

The hearings for the two pro-Trump electors — Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, and Mari-Ann Henry, who was active in Republican politics in suburban Detroit — came a day after the former president pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges in federal court in Washington. Earlier in the week, a grand jury in another part of Michigan indicted prominent Republicans on charges connected to improper access to voting machines.

The hearing Friday was largely procedural. Judge Kristen D. Simmons of the state District Court in Lansing agreed to give defense lawyers until October to review “voluminous” discovery materials in the felony case.

From her small wood-paneled courtroom in Lansing City Hall, across the street from the state Capitol, Simmons spoke over a videoconference link with Maddock, Henry and their lawyers. She agreed to allow each defendant, who could face lengthy prison sentences if convicted, to take a trip out of state before trial.

The cases against Maddock and Henry, who previously pleaded not guilty, are part of a broader prosecution of 16 purported Trump electors in Michigan that was announced last month by the state attorney general, Dana Nessel, a Democrat.

“They weren’t the duly elected and qualified electors, and each of the defendants knew it,” Nessel said in announcing the charges. “They carried out these actions with the hope and belief that the electoral votes of Michigan’s 2020 election would be awarded to the candidate of their choosing instead of the candidate that Michigan voters actually chose.”

Although Trump carried Michigan in 2016, Joe Biden won the state by roughly a 3-point margin in 2020, an outcome that was crucial to his overall election victory.

Other slates of false pro-Trump electors in swing states won by Biden, including Arizona and Georgia, are being investigated as part of a sprawling attempt to reverse the results of the 2020 election.

Some Republicans hoped Vice President Mike Pence would accept the slates of false electors during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, keeping Trump in office for another term.

Pence refused.