False Michigan Electors Were Told to 'Keep Quiet'

Details continue to emerge from the arrest of 16 Michigan residents in connection with a false electors scheme, including evidence that participants were instructed to "keep quiet" about the plan.

On Tuesday, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the arrest of the individuals accused of taking part in a fake electors scheme in an attempt to overturn former President Donald Trump's loss in the state. Each individual is accused of signing off on certificates with the false claim that Trump had won the state, which would have then been taken to Washington, D.C., and passed off as legitimate.

This was the first time that such arrests have been made anywhere in the U.S., as similar schemes were attempted in a handful of other states that he lost to Joe Biden, part of the various plans enacted by Trump or his allies to overturn his loss in the 2020 general election.

The 16 individuals are each charged with the same set of eight felonies: two counts of forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit forgery, two counts of election law forgery, one count of conspiracy to commit election law forgery, one count of publishing a counterfeit record and one count of conspiring to publish a counterfeit record.

As highlighted by Politico reporter Kyle Cheney on Twitter, the arrest affidavit for the 16 false electors includes one text message exchange revealing that the participants in the scheme were instructed to keep quiet about it, to keep attention off of themselves and others carrying out similar plans in other battleground states.

In the exchange, false elector Kathy Berden, 70, texts fellow false elector John Haggard, 82, about another participant in the plan, Meshawn Maddock, 55, whom she said was talking about things on social media.

"I saw Meshawn posted on facebook even though we were all asked to keep silent as to not draw attention to what the other states were doing similar to ours!" Berden texted.

Haggard then questioned if Maddock had been told to keep quiet as well, to which Berden responded that everyone involved in the plan was.

Berden is an RNC committeewoman and close ally of RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel.

Newsweek reached out to Nessel's press office via email for comment. Haggard is a business owner from Charlevoix, Michigan, who was previously a plaintiff in a lawsuit contesting Trump's in the state. Maddock is the former co-chair of Michigan Republican Party.

The 16 false electors met on December 14, 2020, in the Michigan capital of Lansing, where they signed their certificates and attempted to deliver them to the statehouse. They were blocked from entering the building by police, as the state's Democratic electors were meeting there at the time.