Donald Trump now considered 'co-conspirator' in Michigan 2020 election plot: testimony
Former President Donald Trump has been dubbed a co-conspirator in the scheme to claim an unearned victory in Michigan's 2020 presidential election, according to reports of testimony from an Attorney General's office investigator.
Michigan prosecutors consider Trump, former chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Rudy Giuliani unindicted co-conspirators in the state's false elector plot, Howard Shock, a special agent for Attorney General Dana Nessel, said in testimony reported Wednesday by The Detroit News.
"That means prosecutors believe they participated, to some extent, in an alleged scheme to commit forgery by creating a false document asserting Trump had won Michigan's 16 electoral votes when Democrat Joe Biden had won them," writes reporter Craig Mauger.
Shock delivered this avowal in Ingham County District Court Wednesday as Nessel seeks felony forgery charges against 16 Republican activists who signed a certificate of votes for Trump, according to the report.
Duane Silverthorn, the lawyer representing elector Michele Lundgren, reportedly went through a list of people whose status as "unindicted co-conspirator" he asked Shock to confirm.
Shock also affirmed Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Chesebro — two lawyers who have accepted plea deals in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' election racketeering case — are also considered unindicted co-conspirators, the Detroit News reports.
"Some of the defense lawyers have argued that their clients didn't understand what they were signing when they gathered in Michigan GOP headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020," the report notes.
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"They've also contended that it was Trump campaign advisers who orchestrated the false certificate."
Trump's campaign did not immediately respond to the Detroit News' request for comment Wednesday, but spokesperson Steven Cheung has previously criticized accusations that Trump's actions in the wake of his failed 2020 presidential election were improper, the report notes.
"Trump was carrying out his duty as president to investigate the rigged and stolen 2020 presidential election," Cheung said in January.
One month after Cheung made this claim, the Washington Post reported Trump's campaign commissioned a research firm to prove electoral-fraud claims but didn't release the findings because the probe never found any proof.