Kaul responds to Michigan AG charging GOP 'fake electors'

 

MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Wisconsin's top prosecutor declined to say Wednesday whether he intends to file criminal charges against Republicans who signed on as presidential electors in 2020.

One day earlier, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, announced her office was bringing multiple felony charges against that state's 2020 Republican electors.

While President Joe Biden received more votes than former President Donald Trump in both states, Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan submitted papers seeking to claim the states' electoral votes for Trump.

Nessel is charging the 16 Michigan fake electors with eight felony counts each, including forgery and conspiracy to commit forgery.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Josh Kaul was asked about the alternative GOP elector slate after an event in Madison. He declined to say whether he was looking to pursue a similar case against the 10 Wisconsin Republicans who signed documents claiming Trump had won the state.

"AG Nessel, who's a friend of mine, has made comments about this issue before, so I think what we saw is consistent with what one may have expected from public statements," Kaul said. "But I can't comment further on the details of things."

Michigan and Wisconsin are two of seven battleground states Biden won where Republicans submitted their own elector papers.

In Wisconsin, Republicans tried to get the fake elector slate to Sen. Ron Johnson, whose office tried to pass the papers along to then-Vice President Mike Pence. Pence's office rejected the effort, according to findings by the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. 

Kaul has previously said he wanted to see what action federal investigators take before deciding how to proceed at the state level. Kaul vaguely said he believed anyone who tried to overturn the 2020 election should "be held accountable."

"To the extent that people committed crimes in order to try to subvert the results of an election, those folks need to be held accountable," he said. "And I'm very supportive of efforts to ensure that accountability happens."

Kaul did not specify whether he felt signing onto a fake elector slate amounted to trying to overturn an election. 

Wisconsin's 10 GOP alternate electors included Andrew Hitt, who at the time, was the chairman of the state Republican Party. Another elector was Bob Spindell, who's currently serving as vice chair of the six-member Wisconsin Election Commission.

Brian Schimming, the current chairman of the Wisconsin GOP, said Wednesday the Republican electors were merely following legal advice; they were told to submit their own elector slate in case a Trump lawsuit seeking to throw out absentee votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties was successful.

"That has been our position," Schimming said. "That it was in case the votes got- something happened with the votes down the line, which they didn't."

Schimming said he was not worried Nessel's decision would influence Kaul in Wisconsin.

"I'm sure the Democrats would like to pressure him, but again, it's pressure," Schimming said. "It's not the law, it's pressure. So, that's my reaction to that."