Several states have now charged people in the scheme created by Trump allies and boosted by Donald Trump himself to cast fake electoral votes for the Republican candidate for the 2020 election.
As part of the US electoral college system, states cast a set number of votes for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their state, the winner of which then takes the presidency. Seven states that the former president lost saw slates of fake GOP electors falsely claim Trump had won their electoral votes. These fake electors included high-profile Republicans, such as sitting officeholders and state party leaders. A full rundown of all the fake electors can be found here.
Prosecutors in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and Wisconsin filed charges against fake electors. The other two states, Pennsylvania and New Mexico, used hedged language in their electors’ documents that may have spared people from charges.
Kenneth Chesebro, a Trump campaign legal adviser and the supposed mastermind of the fake electors scheme, pleaded guilty in Georgia over his role in subverting the election. Chesebro allegedly created the plan in a secret memo based on Wisconsin’s electoral vote.
At the federal level, the special counsel Jack Smith and his team brought charges against Trump and his allies over their attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, which include the fake-elector scheme. Several states have confirmed they are cooperating with Smith’s investigation, and news reports have indicated Smith offered limited immunity to some fake electors for their testimony.
Since the scheme had no precedent, some states and experts struggled to figure out which laws may have been broken, and whether the charges should be state or federal. In some states, the fake electors also faced civil lawsuits.
The eventual trial dates for all the outstanding cases are unknown. It’s not clear whether any of them will make it to trial before the November election. The Georgia case was the first filed against any fake electors, but the legal action there is not as straightforward as the states where only fake electors are charged.
Here’s where the fake electors charges stand in each state.
Arizona
Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes, who narrowly won the office in 2022, charged 18 people with felonies for fraud, forgery and conspiracy in April 2024 as part of a widespread fake-electors probe.
Her predecessor, Republican Mark Brnovich, had never publicly confirmed a state investigation into the fake electors. Mayes confirmed she was investigating the issue to the Guardian in 2023.
High-profile Trump affiliates have been charged with aiding in the scheme: Mark Meadows, John Eastman, Boris Epshteyn, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Christina Bobb and Mike Roman.
The 11 fake electors who were charged include two sitting lawmakers, state senators Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern. The former Arizona Republican party chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward, have also been charged, as has Tyler Bowyer, of the Republican national committee and Turning Point USA, and Jim Lamon, who ran for US Senate in 2022. The others charged are Nancy Cottle, Robert Montgomery, Samuel Moorhead, Lorraine Pellegrino and Gregory Safsten.
Charging documents lay out the state’s case, alleging the planners and fake electors intended for the false slate to be used in place of the Biden electors as a way to subvert the election results.
Giuliani, unlike the rest of those charged, defied attempts to be served with the charges, culminating in getting served papers after his 80th birthday party.
Georgia
Three fake electors in Georgia were charged as part of a broader case against Trump and his allies over election-subversion attempts.
The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, brought charges against the former Georgia Republican party chair David Shafer, the state senator Shawn Still and the activist Cathy Latham, three of the 16 fake electors from that state. They face various charges, including forgery, impersonating a public officer and attempting to file false documents.
Several of the others who signed on as false electors for Trump struck immunity deals or plea agreements with prosecutors.
The three fake electors charged have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys argued in September that they were not fake electors, but instead “contingent” electors who could be used should the courts overturn Biden’s win, the Associated Press reported. The three are trying to get their case moved from state court in Georgia to a federal court, arguing they were acting as federal officers who were keeping an avenue open for Trump depending on what happened in the courts. They also sought to get their cases dismissed by saying the state can’t charge them for a federal action.
The broader case became a spectacle for some weeks as a romantic relationship between Willis and former special prosecutor Nathan Wade threatened Willis’s ability to continue the prosecution. The judge, Scott McAfee, ruled that either Willis or Wade needed to step away from the case, and Wade did.
Four people in the broader case, none of whom were fake electors, accepted plea deals late last year and will cooperate with prosecutors.
Sidney Powell, who was charged in the broader case, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. The unexpected move netted Powell six years of probation and some fines. Chesebro – on the day jury selection for his trial was set to begin – pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents and will serve five years’ probation. Jenna Ellis, a former Trump lawyer, pleaded guilty, agreeing to five years’ probation, restitution, community service and an apology. Scott Hall, alleged to have breached election equipment, pleaded guilty and will serve five years’ probation, do community service and pay a fine.
Michigan
The Democratic attorney general Dana Nessel charged 16 Michiganders who participated as fake electors with eight felonies each, including multiple forgery charges, for their roles in the scheme. Those charged include party activists, candidates for office, and state and local party officials.
Those charged are: Kathy Berden, William Choate, Amy Facchinello, Clifford Frost, Stanley Grot, John Haggard, Mary-Ann Henry, Timothy King, Michele Lundgren, Meshawn Maddock, Mayra Rodriguez, Rose Rook, Marian Sheridan, Ken Thompson and Kent Vanderwood.
Attempts by two defendants to get the charges dismissed because of Nessel’s comments about how the electors were “brainwashed” were unsuccessful. The 16 people charged pleaded not guilty.
One of Michigan’s fake electors saw his charges dropped as part of a deal with the state’s attorney general: James Renner, a Republican who falsely signed that Trump had won, agreed to “full cooperation, truthful testimony and production of any and all relevant documents” in exchange for the dropped charges, filings from the attorney general’s office, obtained by NBC News, show. This includes information about how he was asked to become part of the fake slate and the circumstances of meetings among those involved in the scheme.
Another person charged, Timothy King, is undergoing a mental health competency evaluation to see if he’s able to stand trial.
The 14 electors with remaining charges were split into two groups for hearings. Six of those charged appeared in court in late April for preliminary hearings.
Nevada
Nevada’s top prosecutor initially indicated his office would not bring charges against the six Republicans who signed on as fake electors there in 2020, but then filed charges in December 2023.
The state’s Democratic attorney general, Aaron Ford, previously said current state laws did not address this kind of situation, “to the dismay of some and, I’m sure, to the delight of others”.
The state legislature passed a bill that would have made it a felony for people to serve as false electors, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Ford had endorsed the bill. But the Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, vetoed the bill, saying the penalties were too harsh, though he said he believed those who undermine elections should face “strict punishments”.
Still, even without the new law, the six fake electors were charged with offering a false instrument for filing, and uttering a forged instrument, both felonies.
The six charged are all figures in the state or local Republican party in Nevada. They are: James DeGraffenreid, Jim Hindle, Jesse Law, Michael J McDonald, Shawn Meehan and Ellen Rice.
New Mexico
Hedged language in New Mexico’s documents may have spared the state’s fake electors from prosecution.
As in Pennsylvania, the fake electors in New Mexico included a caveat. They wrote that they signed the documents “on the understanding that it might be later determined that we are the duly elected and qualified electors”.
The former New Mexico attorney general Hector Balderas started an investigation into the five Republicans who signed as false electors there, then referred the matter to federal prosecutors, according to Source New Mexico.
The office of the current attorney general, Raúl Torrez, at one point confirmed there was an active state investigation into the fake electors to see whether they violated state law. Torrez’s office said it would work with Jack Smith to get any evidence related to a state inquiry, according to KOAT Action News.
Torrez later said the office’s investigation concluded that the GOP slate didn’t break state law, meaning no charges should be forthcoming, because prosecutors wouldn’t be able to prove the fake electors acted with intent to defraud. He recommended the state legislature pursue election-law changes to make fake electors unlawful in the future.
Pennsylvania
The 20 fake electors in Pennsylvania are unlikely to face any criminal charges because of how they worded the documents they signed. The documents say the false electoral votes would only be considered valid if the courts deemed the slate to be the “duly elected and qualified electors” for Pennsylvania.
Governor Josh Shapiro, then the state’s Democratic attorney general, said the hedged language would spare the false electors from a criminal investigation by his office. His successor as attorney general, Michelle Henry, told Votebeat that the office’s position remained that charges were not warranted.
“Though their rhetoric and policy were intentionally misleading and purposefully damaging to our democracy, based on our initial review, our office does not believe this meets the legal standards for forgery,” Shapiro said in 2022.
Wisconsin
The Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, charged three people in June 2024 who advanced the fake-electors scheme in Wisconsin, including plan architect Chesebro.
Federal prosecutors, in the Trump indictment, said the fake-electors scheme started in Wisconsin with the attorney Chesebro, who suggested electors meet there to sign on to a slate in case Trump’s team won in the courts.
The other two charged are Jim Troupis, who was working on Trump legal efforts in Wisconsin in 2020, and Michael Roman, a Trump campaign operative. All three face one felony count for forgery.
Kaul, who was in office at the time the fake-electors scheme happened, had previously been quiet over whether he’d prosecute on the issue. Despite the scheme’s Wisconsin origins, Kaul had seemed hesitant to file charges, with some in the Wisconsin political scene telling Politico in May 2024 that he “does not seem to be in the least bit motivated” to charge them.
It’s not clear whether he still could file charges against any of the 10 fake electors themselves, several of whom have publicly claimed they were misled about their roles.
Earlier this year, Wisconsin’s fake electors settled a civil lawsuit by agreeing that they wouldn’t serve as electors in 2024 or any other election that involved Trump. They also acknowledged Biden’s victory in 2020.
