Lansing — Michigan prosecutors consider former President Donald Trump and some of his top aides co-conspirators in the plot to submit a certificate falsely claiming he won Michigan’s 2020 election, an investigator for Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office testified Wednesday in court.
Howard Shock, a special agent for Nessel, said Trump; Mark Meadows, who was Trump’s chief of staff; and Rudy Giuliani, who was his personal lawyer, are “unindicted co-conspirators” in Michigan’s false elector case. 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.
Shock’s testimony came on the sixth day of preliminary examinations in Ingham County District Court as Nessel’s office pursues felony charges against a group of Republican activists who signed the certificate of votes claiming Trump won.
In July, Nessel, a Democrat, charged the 16 Republican electors with eight felonies each, including conspiracy to commit forgery, which would carry a penalty of up to 14 years behind bars. But Nessel’s office has said its investigation is ongoing.
On Wednesday morning, lawyer Duane Silverthorn, who’s representing elector Michele Lundgren of Detroit, read a list of names, asking Shock if the individuals were unindicted conspirators in the probe.
Shock said “yes” to Trump, Giuliani and Meadows. Trump is set to be the Republican presidential nominee for president this fall.
Shock also said “yes” to former Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Laura Cox and to the names of several other Michigan Republicans. Silverthorn didn’t ask Shock for additional details of the co-conspirators’ alleged involvement.
On Tuesday, Shock described Mike Roman, who was Trump’s director of Election Day operations, as an unindicted conspirator.
“Are there other unindicted co-conspirators?” Silverthorn asked on Wednesday. “I am going to read you a list of names.”
“Former President Trump?” Silverthorn asked.
“Yes,” Shock replied.
Shock also said on Wednesday that Jenna Ellis and Kenneth Chesebro, two lawyers who worked with the Trump campaign in the weeks after the Nov. 3, 2020, presidential election, are also unindicted co-conspirators.
The objective of the electors plan was to bolster claims that the election was “rigged” and ultimately “void the results favoring” Biden, wrote Chesebro, who helped create the electors plan, in a Jan. 1, 2021, email to Boris Epshteyn, a top Trump adviser.
Ellis appeared with Giuliani in Lansing during a Dec. 2, 2020, hearing of the Michigan House Oversight Committee on unproven claims of election fraud. During the meeting, Giuliani urged Michigan lawmakers to intervene in the results of the election.
Six of the Republican electors in Michigan are currently going through their preliminary examinations. Through the proceedings, Ingham County District Court Judge Kristen Simmons will eventually determine whether Nessel’s office has presented enough evidence to show there is probable cause to believe that crimes occurred.
Cox, who was the leader of the Michigan GOP at the time of the 2020 election, testified in the examinations in December. Cox said she had concerns over the certificate Republicans signed on Dec. 14, 2020.
“They weren’t the electors at that moment … in my opinion,” Cox said of Dec. 14, 2020.
Cox, a former state lawmaker from Livonia, said she wanted the Republicans to use a different document that simply said they were “available to meet and perform their duties as a presidential elector.”
More: In court, Michigan Republicans tie false elector effort to Donald Trump’s campaign
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. They’ve also contended that it was Trump campaign advisers who orchestrated the false certificate.
A spokesman for Trump’s…
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