Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is seeking a special prosecutor to investigate her Trump-endorsed opponent, citing evidence tying him to a potentially criminal scheme to seize and tamper with voting machines, reports Politico. The decision comes after an investigation by Nessel and the Michigan State Police into voting machine breaches in several Michigan counties. That investigation unexpectedly led to Kalamazoo lawyer Matthew DePerno, whom former President Trump has taken an outsize interest in promoting to be Michigan’s next attorney general. Nessel said DePerno, with two other people, “orchestrated a coordinated plan to gain access to voting tabulators” that were illegally seized from county clerks. The petition was made to the Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council. Nessel said that DePerno — who has been a pivotal figure promoting Trump’s false allegations that the 2020 election was stolen — was present at an Oakland County hotel room in 2021, during which tabulators were tampered with. As it became evident that DePerno was a subject of the investigation, Nessel’s office decided to request a special prosecutor to avoid the appearance of political motivation. DePerno is set to receive the GOP nomination for attorney general this month after winning the endorsement of party delegates in April. Michigan law makes it a five-year felony for a person to “obtain undue possession of a voting machine used in an election.”
top of page
bottom of page