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On a December day about six weeks after the 2020 United States presidential election, a group gathered covertly in the basement of the Republican Party headquarters in Michigan.
State authorities have contended that at this meeting, the group took part in an attempt to “circumvent the lawfully cast ballots of millions of voters” in the election.
Essentially, authorities claim the 16 Republicans sought to arrange a scenario in which the state of Michigan, where voters had backed Democrat Joe Biden for president, would appear to support his rival, Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, the state’s attorney general announced the 16 individuals would face felony charges arising out of what has become known as the “false electors scheme”.
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The announcement in Michigan came just hours after Trump revealed he had received a “target letter” from the special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating efforts allegedly made by the former president to hold on to power after he lost the 2020 election.
A “target letter” is generally sent to someone to confirm formally that they are being investigated and to offer an opportunity to give their side of the story to a grand jury, which determines whether there is enough evidence to prosecute.
Trump himself suggested that he would be shortly arrested and indicted.
So far, about 1,000 people have been charged in relation to the attack by Trump’s supporters on the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021, as members of Congress were due to certify Biden’s election victory.
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The Michigan announcement and the issuing of the “target letter” suggest that criminal investigations are moving beyond those who broke into the Capitol on January 6th.
The report of the January 6th committee of Congress – which was controlled by Democrats – concluded that there had been “a multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election which culminated in the violence at the Capitol.
Its hearing suggested that an attempt to manipulate the US electoral college system formed part of this plan.
In the US political system, the president is not decided directly by the popular vote. Rather, the winner is determined by an electoral college which is weighted according to the population of each state.
College “electors” are appointed to represent the voters when it meets the month after the presidential election.
The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the electoral college to certify who will be in the White House for the following four years.
In the Michigan case, the attorney general has alleged that the group of Republicans signed their names to multiple certificates stating they were the “duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice-president of the United States of United States for the State of Michigan”.
[ Trump says he is target of criminal inquiry into 2020 election ]
“These false documents were then transmitted to the United States Senate and national archives in a co-ordinated effort to award the state’s electoral votes to the candidate of their choosing, in place of the candidates actually elected by the people of Michigan,” she argued.
False Electoral College certificates were also submitted declaring Trump the winner of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Democrats contend that the Republican plan involved having rival sets of electoral college representatives which would have provided the basis for the vice-president to send the whole issue of who won back to the individual states – where Republican-controlled legislatures would have determined Trump the victor.
The “target letter” sent to Trump last Sunday does not mean definitively that he will be indicted but it is considered a distinct possibility.
By lunchtime on Wednesday, the “target letter” sent to Trump had not been released and details of any potential charges remained unknown.
Various reports in US media suggest, however, the letter cites three statutes under which Trump could be charged: deprivation of rights; conspiracy to commit an offence against or defraud the US; and tampering with a witness.
Legal experts suggested that a conspiracy to defraud the US could be based on an attempt to procure bogus electoral college certificates and that an attempt to get the vice-president to use these to interfere with the certification process on January 6th could represent an obstruction of an official proceeding.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the US Congress have backed Trump and argued that any prosecution would represent the government seeking to prosecute its leading political opponent.