District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons has dismissed the criminal charges against 15 Republicans charged with falsely attempting to certify President Donald Trump as the winner of the 2020 election. It is a major loss for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) (shown left), who garnered public support in trying to prosecute the Michigan electors.
Simmons was appointed by Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2019, and concluded: “I believe they were executing their constitutional right to seek redress.” She found no evidence of intent to commit fraud, and held that the Republicans “seriously believed” there were issues with the 2020 presidential election.
In early November 2020, polls indicated that a significant percentage of the population questioned the election’s outcome and the integrity of the voting process.
Michigan Attorney General Nessel employed a scorched-earth approach to those questioning the election. Viewed as arguably the most partisan Attorney General in the state’s history, Nessel is often compared to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In this case, she charged each defendant with eight charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. The most serious charges carried a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
At a news briefing after the judge’s decision, Nessel strongly suggested that Simmons was merely cowering in fear of retaliation in reaching her decision. She referred to judges’ “fear of retaliation and the ongoing intimidation of threats.”
When pressed on the extraordinary claim of intimidation by the press, Nessel seemed to double down, stating that “it’s likely that in some circumstances, there are judges out there that think about the threats they’ve received.”
It is enormously insulting to this judge and, ironically, engages in the same type of attacks for which Democrats have criticized Trump.
Nessel has a history of public diatribes and political attacks on opponents, as well as major losses in some headline-grabbing cases.
This prosecution has taken two years. Nessel said that she is debating her next move.
GStreet’s comment below is correct, however it addressed the tree, not the forest.
As noted in the article, District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons freeing from the Bastille is really just a Bertrand Barère action (using Dr. Turley’s has previously accurately related toprior posts relating to the French “democracy revolution”).
The reality is NOW, and the last 15 years, an oligarchy(“progressives”) have created division and hatred through categorization (e.g., the sub-human identification of others) in a manner that obfuscates their own actions that demonstrate EXACTLY those they accuse others of being.
This was not an attack on Trump (tree), it was an attack on forest (democracy). As Dr. Turley has accurately cross-identified in prior posts relating to the French “democracy revolution”, we’ve ended up in the French horror of tyranny (Reign of Terror), which ultimately resulted in 3 generations of Royal Dictatorship of the Napoleons.
America is, and has been living in the Reign of Terror run by the equivalent of the Jacobins who’ve costumed themselves as sans-culottes (progressive working class), focused their recruitment and cult conversion of the Tricoteuse (the women in the French Revolution who sat in the gallery supporting the left-wing politicians in the National Convention, attended the meetings in the Jacobin club, the hearings of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and sat beside the guillotine during public executions, supposedly continuing to knit) and other targeted “repressed” classes.
We have used “lawfare” (guillotines) to bypass the obvious truth that WE (“progressives”) are the oligarchs/autocrats — not those we’ve delivered to the National Razor.
Until Obama, Clinton, Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Cheney, Kinzinger, Schiff and the rest of the seditious conspiracy cadre and treasonous lying criminals are held accountable in a court of law this topic will continue to remain a social fissure amongst the people.
Seems this judge used some logic, common sense, and critical thinking.
No wonder AG Nessel is losing it.
Now if only you would do the same.
Oh, but I do!
And you, like Nessel is losing it!!!
How marvelous!!!!!
Mostly – but this case should have been dismissed almost immediately.
There was no basis. The actions being prosecuted were perfectly legal.
The actions taken by Eastman and others were the same actions taken by Clinton as well as Gore
and others usually democrats in prior close elections.
Challenging an election is legal. It is even legal if you beleive the election actually was free and fair.
If your challenge is entirely frivolous and without basis – then the court can sanction you for frivilous lawsuits,
but there is no crime involved.
There is no such thing as a “fake elector”. On several occasions in US history electors that were NOT those initially blessed by the state, ended up being the ones whose votes were counted by congress.
In 1960 Nixon won the state of Hawaii on election night, The state of Hawaii later certified him as the winner, His electors were the “official” elector, but subsequently errors were found that altered the outcome. The Democratic party in HI went through all the process necescary for an alternate slate of electors, just exactly as Eastman and company did, and flew the results to DC to get them there in time for the certification of the vote, and then VP Richard Nixon certified that JFK had actually won the state of Hawaii.
There is plenty of precident, what Democrats are trying to pretend is a crime is the proper way to challenge an election.
A leftie wolf in sheep’s clothing. Dare I say she looks “normal” for a socialist. 99% of the time you can judge a book by it’s cover, but Nessel slips through in the 1%.
So I guess that means 1% of the time you can book a judge undercover?!
Trump is a Make-a-Wish Kid!
YAWN.
You sure do yawn a lot.
Maybe you should see a doctor about that:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/yawning
From a hack who is no longer funny. Soon to join Steven Colbert.
You seem to have not noticed that Greg Gutfeld is the new number one by a large margin.
Gutfeld is currently a ratings success, often leading cable news and competing with traditional late-night shows, with viewership figures varying by quarter and month but generally showing strong performance. For instance, in the second quarter of 2025, it averaged 3.289 million total viewers, and the show has seen significant year-over-year growth. In the week of January 20, 2025, it achieved an average of over four million viewers per night, and a September 2024 episode featuring Donald Trump set a new record with nearly five million viewers.
Read em and weep.
What is particularly damning is that While Gutfeld is a solid comic, he is NOT so great that he should dominate this thoroughly. A significant portion o Gutfelds success is the result of the failure of his left wing competitors to be funny.
The left has lost its sense of humor.
Something much more interesting,
Ignored by media, enabled by Dems: how soft-on-crime policies unleashed murder of Ukrainian refugee
“The murder of Iryna Zarutska and its treatment by Democrats and mainstream media highlight the interplay between systemic issues in the justice system, a leftist ideology on policing and criminal justice, and a media complicit in hiding those issues from the public.”
https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/ignored-media-enabled-dems-how-soft-crime-policies-unleashed-murder-ukrainian-refugee
Apparently, ignorance of the law is an excuse in the great state of Michigan.
Opps… you mean all over America.
I have no idea what you mean – Nessle lost because the conduct in question was LAWFUL.
The 2020 election may be fresh in our minds, but it is not the only close election in US history.
It is not the only time that a candidate or party has challenged the results in a state.
It is not the only time that competing slates of electors were prepared.
It is not the only time that these challenges made it to congress.
It is not the only time the vice president chose which slate of electors to put to congress.
Absolutely this was unusual – but the 2020 election – which was conducted without following election laws in nearly all states was an unusual election. In most of the past instances in which election challenges like those brought by Trump and Eastman were brought, there was LESS basis to challenge the election, and yet. many of these past challenges succeeded.
That is not what the judge said when she dismissed the case. She clearly stated that she did not think the defendants had the mens rea required to move forward with the case. The dismissal was not due to defects with the actus reus.
Correct, The Judge did NOT decide the merits of the case. She decided whether the prosecutor had provided evidence for all the required elements of the alleged crime.
Once there was a single element without sufficiently credible evidence – a very low bar, she was obligated to dismiss.
Once ANY criteria to dismiss was reached she need not examine the case further.
Personally I beleve she should have dismissed because the prosecutor alleged that perfectly legal conduct was a crime.
Regardless the judge is not obligated to address every weakness in the prosecutions case.
All she is required to do is find a SINGLE basis for dismissal.
When cases are dismissed as this one was there are nearly always MANY excellent reasons to do so.
Sometimes the judge choose the strongest basis for dismissal.
Sometimes the the judge chooses which of many reasons to dismiss based om political considerations.
In this case dismissing because there is no crime would strengthen lawsuits as well as criminal charges against Nessel for violation of rights under color of law.
My Guess is that the judge picked a lack of evidence of Mens Rea because does NOT expose the fact that the prosecution itself was a criminal violation of the law.
Regardless there is no requirement that the Judge address every flaw in the case to dismiss.
She is not even required to address every instance where there is no evidence of a required element of the crime.
I am interested in reading the order once it is available to see how Judge Simmons addresses constructive knowledge. The quotes from news articles seem to suggest she thought these individuals were idiots and therefore they genuinely believed that forging a document was not a crime. She said folks like the chair of the Michigan GOP was not “savvy” enough to know that an election requires electors to vote in line with election results. If the chair of the MI GOP doesn’t know that, it is pretty damning indictment of the idiocy of the party leadership in that state.
These defendants absolutely should have known that forging a fake slate of electors is wrong, and I would support changes to every state’s requirements for becoming an elector to swear via affidavit that each understands that forging a fake slate of electors is a felony.
Of course, that won’t happen.
“and I would support changes to every state’s requirements for becoming an elector to swear via affidavit that each understands that forging a fake slate of electors is a felony.”
Your proposed “support” means nothing. You appear to lack a basic understanding that they did not believe they were “forging a fake slate.” They (and others) were led to believe that FINAL vote tallies would show that Trump won, but they were required to cast their ballot prior to that time.
But for the conniving tactics of the Democratic Party, this would not even have been an issue.
While you are correct – it is not important what they beleived.
Alternate slates of electors is LEGAL and has been atleast since 1876.
While you are incorrect that alternate slates of electors have no bearing unless accepted and certified by a state official and later by the VP/president of the Senate
rewrite, While you are incorrect in assuming that alternate slates of electors have any bearing without being accepted and certified by a SOS or state official and later by the VP/president of the Senate
The case should have been dismissed because the conduct was legal.
Long long long ago federal courts determined that one of the legitimate ways to challenge the results of a presidential election was to put forth an alternate slate of electors and that the Vice president and congress would determine which candidates electors to count.
There are many many examples in which alternate slates of electors were put together.
In several instances – those are the electors whose votes were counted.
The judges remarks that the defendants did not committ a crime because they beleived what they were doing was lawful – Mens Rea is a required element for most crimes.
But one of the reasons they beleived their actions were lawful is BECAUSE THEY ARE.
In fact heir actions would have still been lawful if they KNEW beyond a doubt that the election was determined correctly.
Alternate slates of electors are NOT forgery. They are a legitimate effort to challenge an election that courts have recognized for atleast 150 years.
But as is typical of left wing nuts – you beleive you can make the law up as you go.
Nessel should be prosecuted for violation of civil rights under color of law.
In a politically blind court – that would be a slam dunk.
You can not use the power of your office to prosecute people for actions that the courts long ago established are NOT A CRIME.
That is actual lawfare and THAT is a crime.
ATS – of course it will not happen – Because there is no such thing as a fake elector or a forgery in the process.
In the US we have a history of challenging slates of electors with alternate electors dating back to ATLEAST 1876.
Clinton prepared alternate slates of electors in 2016, but ultimately did not challenge the election in congress.
The Gore campaign in 2000 did the same.
In 1960 Democrats in HI challenged the state certified electors and none other than VP Richard Nixon accepted the HI democrat electors vote over the state certified Republican electors that had voted for him.
In 1876 in an election very similar to 2020 – i.e. Rife with credible allegations of large scale fraud in multiple states.
Multiple slates of electors from several states were presented to congress. Congress delayed certification and a backroom deal was struck. The republican electors – not the state certified ones were accepted in 3 states in return the Republicans agreed to remove Union Troops from the south and shortly after the Posse Comitatus act was passed severly limiting the use of federal troops to enforce the law.
“She said folks like the chair of the Michigan GOP was not “savvy” enough to know that an election requires electors to vote in line with election results.”
That is NOT the law. The law requires the State Certified electors to vote consistent with the state certified results.
If the law prohibited alternate electors it would violate federal law and the constitution.
I know this is hard for you left wing nuts – but alternate slates of electors have been presented to congress on several occasions, they have been accepted over the certified electors in several elections.
The constitution REQUIRES that Congress count the votes of electors. The left wing nut claim that this is ceremonial, would allow any state to conduct an openly fraudulent election, certify what ever electors they wished require them to vote a specific way and leave congress no power to act. That has been established a s a constitutional falsehood over a century ago. Congress can accept or reject slates of electors as it pleases. It is not required to accept the states certified electors – though it nearly always does. It is NOT required to accept any electors from a state at all.
The constitution does NOT include purely cerimonial actions.
No state can make a law that restricts the power of congress to perform a task delegated to it by the constitution.
But all this idiotic lawfare is typical of left wing nuts. Make the law up as you go. Make the constitution up as you go.
Pay no heed to the FACT that your made up law creates conflicts with other laws, and constitutionally delegated powers.
The instances in which competing slates of electors have been presented to congress have been very very rare.
But they have happened. However the instances in which each party has considered putting forth an alternate slate of electors is common. Clinton not only considered it – but the so called “Eastman plan” was actually the Plan Lawrence Tribe provided to Clinton to challenge the 2016 election. And Gores Lawyers offered up an alternate electors challenge to Florida in 2000.
But we had all kinds of lawlessness by the left in 2020.
” If the chair of the MI GOP doesn’t know that”
It would be because it is not true.
“it is pretty damning indictment of the idiocy of the party leadership in that state.”
It is pretty damning of the left of AG Nessel of all the others cheering these cases on that you do NOT know that is NOT the law. If state law barred alternate slates of electors, that law would be unconstitutional.
“These defendants absolutely should have known that forging a fake slate of electors is wrong”
That would be true if it was even possible.
There is no forgery. There is no “fake”.
“I would support changes to every state’s requirements for becoming an elector to swear via affidavit that each understands that forging a fake slate of electors is a felony.
Of course, that won’t happen.”
It may well happen – but it would be unconstitutional.
I have made ONE argument against your lunacy – there are MANY – another is that the appointment and certification of electors is directed by the legislature – not the exceutive – while the legislature can delegate that power, it can also rescind that delegation.
Again nothing in the constitution is proforma or cerimonial. In most of these states the alternate slates of electors were created with the intention of bringing them before the legislature to be certified with the expectation that as the constitution delegates the manner of choosing electors to the legislature, that the legislature is free to change that – at any time.
There is no intent to commit a crime here – because there is no crime.
This would be obvious to anyone who is not a complete moron.
The claim that these people acted fraudulently requires that the state executive can do whatever it pleases without any remedy in an election.
I find it hillarious that left wing nuts are screaming about alternate electors when in 2020 they conducted “alternate elections” – outside of the states election law and constitution.
Michigans constitution includes a “secret Ballot” requirement for all elections.
A secret ballot Must meet all the following criteria:
an official ballot being printed at public expense,
on which the names of the nominated candidates of all parties and all proposals appear,
being distributed only at the polling place and
being marked in secret.
Mailin ballots do not meet the last two criteria, and frequently not the first.
These requirement – as well as other requirements of election law or state constitutions exist to make election fraud difficult. They were enshrined in state constitutions because of massive election fraud in the 19th century.
The left does not seem to grasp that humans and political parties have changed very little since then.
Provide the oportunity for Fraud and it will occur.
Regardless the “Rule of law” does not allow those who do NOT follow the laws that exist to prosecute others for violating laws that do not exist.
Cases of fraud from Mail-in voting are rare. Fraud occurs in every election. The difference is it is often not enough to change the outcome of an election. It has never happened.
Claims of massive voter fraud in 2020 were dismmised by the majority of the courts for two simple things. Lack of evidence and lack of standing to sue. Rudy Giuliany famously admitted in court that he had no evidence of his claims of voter fraud. But he knows there was. That doesn’t fly in any court.
It is increasingly evident that these cases (to include the Colorado case) are the attempt to chill any question about a 10 million vote fabrication in the 2020 election. My question is where did those 10 million votes go????????
The fact that there was election fraud is indisputable as evidenced by the fact that the cumulative vote (public record) shows sudden decreases which is impossible without fraud. The question is in places that this occurred who did it and how was it done. We’ll likely never know.
https://youtu.be/e2mH9X4jQT8?si=4k0dCrbcAQgEv6eo
This case never did appear to be motivated by a sincere belief that any law had been violated.
It always appeared more closely related to many states’ desperate embrace of lawfare in order to support their desire to
attack Trump. Anti-Trumpists did as much or more to debase actual law as they accuse Trumpists of.
No – they did MORE.
Proceeding with an alternate slate of electors even if you KNOW the election results were accurate is STILL not a crime.
Prosecuting someone for acts that are NOT a crime is actually a federal crime.
Violating civil rights under color of law.
“A federal judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, allowing her to continue in her current role, for now, even as lawyers for the administration are expected to immediately appeal the decision to a higher court for review.”
– Fox News
______________
ENOUGH!
It is long past time for the Supreme Court to extricate the judicial branch from the executive branch.
The head of the executive branch is elected by the People to lead and execute at his discretion and as he deems appropriate.
The executive power is vested in “a President of the United States” and not in the legislative or judicial branch.
No legislation or adjudication may usurp and exercise executive power.
The legislative branch may impeach and convict the President at any time.
This guy doesn’t know that judicial review is a thing.
Perhaps you should read the US Constitution.
test
Hi, George. How are you today.
Now Wisconsin needs to stop the witch hunt they are engaging in to get Judge Jim Troupis. Troupis literally followed election law with the election in 2020 and they have weaponized the judicial system against him. People are threatening him and his family, he’s had to move out of state, and they are trying to prosecute him for a felony. Pure weaponization of the judicial system!!!
Liberty is a simple idea, everyone has the liberty to make poor decisions, it should not ruin her future. I prefer to have dimwitted prosecutors pursuing justice, not just revenge. #TDS is a terminal disease, not many recover from it.
That’s a great excuse for the drunk driver who commits vehicular manslaughter!
Nessel is debating her next move? I suppose it would be wishful thinking that the move would be resignation.
The unwillingness for the US to hold the perpetrators of the 2021 attempted coup is a key reason that the US is falling into fascism.
ROFL
I do not think it is possible to make so many errors in such a short sentence.
There was no coup attempt.
Elections are challenged all the time.
2021 was unique in several ways:
In the number of election laws and state constitutional requiremets that were violated in conducting it.
Ignoring fraud entirely – the election was just plain unconstitutionally and lawlessly conducted in most states.
No there is no pandemic exception to the law and constitution.
If our laws and constitution do not work as they were passed under stress – then those provisions never should have been passed in the first place.
Next the courts universally refused to allow challenges based on vuiolations of election law and state constitutions – not even bothering to hear these cases.
They universally refused to allow challenges based on credibly claims of fraud. Contra the left there is ALWAYS fraud in an election – Whether that fraud is sufficient to alter the outcome can not be determined without REAL scrutiny.
This is particularly true when election laws and election constitutional provisions are discarded.
38 states have provisions in their state constitutions that require secret ballots. There are several LEGAL requirements for secret ballots ONE of those is IN PERSON VOTING AT A POLLING PLACE.
Why ? Because while that does not make fraud impossible – it makes it many orders of magnitude harder (and easier to catch) and orders of magnitude smaller.
That is why pretty much ALL election laws exist – to make fraud hard, easy to catch and small in scale.
When you pretend away election laws – as we did in 2020 – if you do not get massive fraud – you are lucky.
Worse, by not following the law you not only make fraud easier – you make it harder to detect.
We vote in person at polling places for many reasons. ONE of those is that the voter only posesses the ballot – under supervision While Voting. That means that if we detect problems with Ballots we KNOW that it is election officials.
If you KNOW that YOU will be the focus of any anomalies, you are likely to resist the temptation for fraud.
Once ballots are out in the “wild” any detected anomalies can have myriads of possible causes and myriads of different people responsible for them – No one commits election fraud if they know they will get caught. Far more people will committ election fraud if they think they can get away with it.
The US is not “falling into Fascism” – if anything it is headed away from it.
Nor is it falling into totalitarianism or authoritarianism.
Claiming any of those simply means you have no idea what Fascism actually is – or totalitarianism, or authoritarianism.
With very few exceptions Trump is seeking to shrink government. All govenrment comes at the expense of freedom.
The bigger government gets the more authoritarian it is the more totalitarian it is, the more fascist it it.
Musollini the founder of Fascism defined it as:
Everything inside the state
nothing outside the state
nothing against the state.
If that sounds like the definition of socialism – that would be because Fascism IS socialism.
By definition, logically and because that is precisely how fascists like Mussolini and Hitler described themselves.
Very Well Stated
MAGA Ditto
Ano
You mean the BLM right..
As we all know, there was no attempted coup. Just the usual lie those with TDS desperately cling to.
I commend the Judge for her decision. She seemed to exhibit good judgement and some reasonableness. The Attorney General, on the other hand, seemed to have some real issues that she needs to work through. I would suggest some psychological assessment and some rage therapy.
As a mental health professional, I know this will not work. And a full assessment is unnecessary. Meds maybe.
What a disgraceful reply to District Judge Kathleen Simmons who ruled against AG Nessel. To claim the only reason Judge Simmons found for the defendants was based on unidentified and unverified intimidation and threats to the Judge, suggesting moral cowardice of the District Judge, is abominable. The Blue states of this country always find the worst candidates for AG’s in the country. From CA to NY to Mass and in between.
BTW, Judge Simmons was appointed by Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer, among the worst Governors in the country. So the Judge ruled against the State run by the Governor who appointed her. That is moral courage not cowardice.
I believe a prosecutor making such comments as this could be, and should be, held in contempt of court. I would hope that the judge or the Michigan Bar Association will discipline her in a meaningful way.
That would be nice, but if someone like Marc Elias still has a license to practice then I doubt anyone would challenge Nessel. Legal discipline appears to only apply against conservatives
Fortunately she is term limited and so is the rest of the Coven (includes Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson)
It also presumes idiotically that the only threats against the judge were from the right.
The real question is why this took so long.
All these cases were obvious garbage from the start.
I would note that Judge Simmons reasoning – as cited by Turley is problematic.
While in SOME instance a person is innocent of commenting a crime if they did not know they were doing wrong.
In ALL instances a person is innocent – if the ACT they committed is NOT a crime, even if there motivations were bad.
This is a common error of wing nuts.
No legal act becomes a crime because you beleive the person acting has bad motives.
*. Back on planet earth isn’t there something called a bar review. The legal profession would have reviewed these nutworthy judges, AGs, attorneys long ago and disbarred them. End of story.
I have never seen any of these quasi governmental bodies – private borads that exercise govenrment powers like the bar, that have done their job well in more than a few incredibly rare instances.
ALL state licensing should be terminated. Organizations like the Bar can make recomendations, they can terminate the membership of members based on whatever criteria they wish, but they should never have the power to restrict ones ability to practice their profession.
I would note that some of the greatest attorney’s in the United states were “disciplined” by state bars.
Lawyers such as F. Lee Bailey.
Ok, how does the judiciary clean it’s ranks of clearly incompetent judges?
Another one word comment (after this): good!
Court cases that get overturned deserve the same publicity as the original verdicts. I don’t want to mandate actions for the press, I wish journalists could or would set their own standards of conduct before a writer, organization or writing can be labeled as “journalism,” like lawyers, plumbers, contractors, nurses have organizations that determine professional standards. I’ll just have to share this article….
This is a wonderful verdict.
The problem is is that most journalists are not journalists. Most of them, primarily the main stream media including Fox, have an agenda and or their bosses do. That is why the general public does not see things like this or for example the murder in North Carolina on the train.
This is why I find Professor Turley’s blog so informative in so many ways.
Next move….oh please let it be California or New York City!
She need not do up her Resume for a Federal Judge’s seat in the next three years for sure.
I want the FASCIST Democrats Jailed by the 1000’s!
Only the proven guilty ones…. I don’t want to come anywhere close to being like them
There is an extremely large number of vile people on the left.
There is a smaller but very large number who are bad actors.
But there is only a small number that committed actual crimes.
We are obligated to expose ALL of these.
But we must restrict criminal prosecutions to those who committed crimes.
Deport them all. Let God sort them out.
I want them deported. Back to their nations of origin. Why not. It is the twilight zone. Then deport all Africans back and cut crime by 50%.
So stupid
If you’re white move to a white State and increase your chance of survival by đź’Ż% Rid yourselves of 99% of all crime. Then listen to: if I only lived in that State my life would be so much better. Let’s sue them for having a better life.
Novel idea.
Legally