A Michigan judge on Sept. 9, 2025, dismissed criminal charges against 15 people accused of falsely certifying themselves as presidential electors for the 2020 election, saying the defendants will not face trial on forgery and conspiracy counts.
District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons issued the ruling after nearly a year of consideration following a series of lengthy preliminary hearings in the case brought by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Each of the 15 defendants had been charged with eight counts, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery; the most serious felony counts carried potential prison terms of up to 14 years.
Prosecutors said the group met at the Michigan Republican Party headquarters in December 2020 and signed a document stating they were the state’s "duly elected and qualified electors" for then-President Donald Trump, despite official results showing Joseph R. Biden Jr. won Michigan by about 155,000 votes in the 2020 contest. The outcome was later confirmed by a GOP-led state Senate investigation in 2021. One defendant had earlier had charges dismissed after agreeing to cooperate with the attorney general’s office in October 2023; the remaining 15 had pleaded not guilty and maintained their actions were lawful.
Nessel, a Democrat, announced the charges more than two years ago. The case had been mired in pretrial litigation, including multiple preliminary hearings that stretched over months as the court considered whether there was sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.
The Michigan decision is the latest development in a patchwork of state prosecutions alleging coordinated efforts to assemble slates of so-called "fake electors" after the 2020 election. Prosecutors in Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia have also filed criminal charges tied to similar schemes, but those matters have run into procedural and appellate delays and remained far from trial.
In Nevada, state prosecutors revived a case against a group accused of submitting a false slate of electors. In Arizona, a judge recently ordered a related case sent back to a grand jury. In Wisconsin, a judge declined last month to dismiss felony charges against three Trump allies over an effort to cast false electoral ballots. The Georgia prosecution has been effectively paused while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis appeals her removal from the case.
Federal authorities previously included allegations about the effort to assemble alternate slates of electors in a broader indictment, but that federal case was abandoned earlier in 2025 shortly before the presidential inauguration.
Electors are members of the 538-person Electoral College that formally selects the president and vice president; in most states electors are pledged to the statewide popular vote winner, while Maine and Nebraska allocate electoral votes by congressional district. The Michigan ruling removes one of the more prominent state criminal cases connected to the post-2020 electors controversy, even as related investigations and litigation continue across the country.