Revealed: Michigan fake elector communicated with Trump campaign attorneys in 2020

Meshawn Maddock, one of 16 Michigan Republicans who served as “fake electors” in 2020 to help Donald Trump stay in power, once praised the “incredible constitutional attorneys” who helped craft the fake elector scheme — despite later claiming only “vague” recollection of the conspiracy, CNN reports.

CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck on Thursday reported that in a Dec. 16, 2020 interview, Maddock described planning the fake elector scheme with Trump’s campaign lawyers. During that interview, Maddock told radio host Steve Gruber she was “guided by legal minds” to become “an elector for Donald Trump from the Michigan Republican Party.”

“I’m no constitutional attorney, I’m an elector for Donald Trump from the Michigan Republican Party,” Maddock said, according to a review of that interview. "I along with the other 15 electors were guided by legal minds – attorneys for our president, some very incredible constitutional attorneys – I’ve never in my whole life appreciated legal minds and attorneys before.”

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Maddock continued:

I can tell you that in the last few weeks, just some incredible minds. And from what I understand, you know, you have the federal constitutional law, and then you have state statutes, and they’re two different things. So, what we did — along with seven other states — really send in dueling electors, and that will be there before a federal constitutional attorney, and it’ll be before Mike Pence and Congress to make that decision.

In July 2023, Maddock claimed to have only a “vague” recollection of the fake elector scheme.

“A lot of that is still vague to me,” Maddock told Gruber in 2023. “And I don’t have any email communications with any of these people.”

Maddock and 15 others in July were charged by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel “for their roles in the Trump campaign’s plan to subvert the Electoral College and overturn the 2020 election results by supplanting lawful Democratic electors with fake Republican electors,” CNN reports.

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According to CNN:

Each of the fake Michigan electors were charged with eight state felonies: two counts of forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of election law forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit election law forgery, one count of publishing a counterfeit record and one count of conspiring to publish a counterfeit record. Each person pleaded not guilty to the felony charges.

Read the full report at CNN.