After a lengthy investigation that linked him to multiple county voting machine breaches, Dana Nessel, Michigan Attorney General, requested that a special prosecutor investigate her Republican rival.
Nessel and the state police conducted an investigation into voting machine breaches across the stateLed investigators to Matthew DePernoAccording to documents obtained by,, a Kalamazoo attorney, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump as the next state attorney general. Politico.
DePerno and two others “orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators” that were illegally seized from county election clerks, Nessel’s office said in a petition last week seeking a special prosecutor, calling DePerno “one of the prime instigators” of the plot.
According to the petition, DePerno was in an Oakland County hotel room when the tabulators were tampered.
After it became apparent that DePerno was a key supporter of Nessel, Nessel asked for the special prosecutor. Trump’s false election claimsMichigan was the subject of the investigation.
“When this investigation began there was not a conflict of interest. However, during the course of the investigation, facts were developed that DePerno was one of the prime instigators of the conspiracy,” the petition said. “A conflict arises when ‘the prosecuting attorney has a personal interest (financial or emotional) in the litigation,’” it added.
The petition went on to note that it is a five-year felony to “obtain undue possession of a voting machine used in an election.”
Nessel in a letter to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson wrote that the actions of the individuals in the probe are “very serious,” adding that she requested a special prosecutor to review “possible criminal charges against several of the individuals involved.”
The list of individuals includes DePerno’s law partner, Stefanie Lambert, and state Rep. Daire RendonThe fake electors plot was led by a member of Nessel’s office. Nessel’s office alleged that the three “orchestrated” the effort to illegally seize a voting tabulator from Roscommon County, one of at least 11 voting system breachesThe state. The list also includes Barry County Sherriff Dar Leaf, a Mike Lindell ally and so-called “constitutional sheriff” leading his own “voter fraud investigation.”
“To ensure Michigan’s elections are secure in the future, there must be consequences now for the people who illegally accessed the state’s voting machines,” Benson spokesperson Jake Rollow told ReutersThe first to report the request for a special prosecutor was
After being endorsed by the state GOP in April, DePerno is expected to be formally elected Republican nominee for attorney-general. He was the leader of a Nov 2020 lawsuit against Antrim County. This county was at the heart of many TrumpWorld conspiracy theories. Trump and his allies cited the tabulator error in Antrim County that occurred on election night. However, it was quickly fixed. debunked allegations of election fraud. DePerno’s false claims alleging voting machine irregularities in Antrim even made it into a Trump White House draft orderThe order to the military to seize voting devices was never issued.
Nessel’s office in its petition said that evidence uncovered in its probe found digital IDs matching the illegally seized voting machines that DePerno used as evidence in the lawsuit.
DePerno was also involved in the so-called “forensic audit” of the results in Arizona’s Maricopa County, which ultimately also found that Trump lost the state, according to Politico. DePerno during the Jan. 6 Capitol also met with a top Trump State Department official to discuss “how the election was stolen.”
Trump quickly supported DePerno and gave him his endorsement almost a year ago. Later, he hosted Mar-a-Lago’s fundraiser for DePerno. He also campaigned for him throughout Michigan. Trump at the event touted DePerno as a candidate who would root out alleged “shenanigans” in the state’s elections.
“This is somebody that can fix it. There aren’t that many people around that can do it,” he said. “I talked him into doing it.”
DePerno’s campaign “categorically” denied the allegations made by Nessel’s office, calling the petition an “incoherent liberal fever dream” and accusing Nessel of using tax dollars to target her opponent.
“The claims presented by Nessel show a completely unwarranted and erroneous attack purely based on political prosecution,” the campaign alleged in a statementThe specific allegations are not addressed.
Nessel found at least 11 breaches in the state, and 17 nationwide. Reuters. Similar breaches were also found in Ohio, North Carolina, North Carolina, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. Republican election officials tried to interfere with vote-counting this past year, refusing certify primary results or to count all valid ballots in at least three states.
“What’s clear is this is a nationally coordinated effort,” Benson warned in a PoliticoInterview last month. “It’s multi-year, multi-faceted … not just pressuring election officials, but pressuring local elected officials as well.”
Trump-backed election conspiracists are also feared by election officials.
“We were very fortunate in 2020 that no sitting secretary bought into the Stop the Steal effort,” Benson said. “I don’t think we’ll get that lucky again.”
