Analysis: What we now know about Michigan’s pivotal role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection

In the three years since the supporters of former President Donald Trump attempted to circumvent the Constitution and overturn a lawful election, it’s become clearer how Michigan was a key part of the process that led up to the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.

In the immediate aftermath of the riot, the main focus on Michigan’s role surrounded the actions of state Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford) and his wife, Meshawn Maddock, who were in Washington, D.C. and attended a Jan. 5 “Stop the Steal” rally hosted by Trump that preceded the attack on the Capitol. While they claimed that they didn’t attend the riot, it was widely reported that Meshawn Maddock had helped to organize buses carrying Trump supporters to Washington, D.C. 

Meshawn Maddock, who the following month would become the co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, later condemned the violence, but not before retweeting a video from Jan. 6 showing the crowd marching to the Capitol.

“The most incredible crowd and sea of people I’ve ever walked with,” she said.

However, more details about her alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election wouldn’t come to light for more than 18 months.

A plan to halt certification 

What has become clear is that the effort began within hours of the 2020 election itself, if not months before (more on that later). 

When Jack Smith, special counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), filed an indictment against Trump in August 2023 alleging that the former president and co-conspirators attempted to subvert the 2020 election; he placed Michigan at the epicenter of the conspiracy. 

Just two days after ballots had been cast on Nov. 3, 2020, the indictment said Trump falsely alleged that there had been a suspicious dump of votes at Detroit’s former TCF Center where absentee ballots were being counted. That sparked a vociferous protest from GOP activists who tried to stop the vote counting.

“In Detroit, there were hours of unexplained delay in delivering many of the votes for counting,” Trump was quoted as saying. “The final batch did not arrive until 4 in the morning and even though the polls closed at 8 o’clock. So they brought it in, and the batches came in, and nobody knew where they came from.”

With 43 jurisdictions, Wayne is the state’s most populous county and includes Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, which also is 80% Black and heavily Democratic. Tallies showed that President Joe Biden secured about 68% of the votes cast for president in Wayne County and Trump received about 31% of votes in the county.

But when the Wayne County Board of Canvassers met on November 17, 2020, to certify the election results, the false claim of illegal votes in Detroit led the two Republican members, William Hartmann and Monica Palmer, to initially vote against certification. They eventually relented and fulfilled their legal obligations to certify the results.

And while there were allegations that the Trump campaign had pressured Hartmann and Palmer to change their votes, it was only recently reported that Trump himself had called the GOP canvassers and urged them to refuse to sign Wayne County’s certification of the 2020 presidential election.

“We’ve got to fight for our country,” the Detroit News reported Trump said on the recording. “We can’t let these people take our country away from us.”

Also reportedly on the call, which the News said was recorded by a person present with Palmer and Hartmann at the time, was Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, a Wayne County resident and niece of U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

“If you can go home tonight, do not sign [the certification]. … We will get you attorneys,” McDaniel is reported to have told Palmer and Hartmann. 

Trump is then said to have added: “We’ll take care of that.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said that Michigan’s status as the first battleground state on the certification calendar was no coincidence to why Trump was focused on halting the process. 

“Had Trump succeeded in delaying or preventing a county or statewide certification in Michigan, that precedent would have been used to delay or block certification in Pennsylvania (which was certifying the following week), Georgia and so on, paving the way for the false slate of electors. We knew we were the first domino to go and that what Michigan did would impact the others,” said Benson.

The indictment noted that while Trump was ultimately unable to stop Michigan’s certification, he would continue to repeat the false claim of thousands of illegal votes in Detroit multiple times, up to and including on January 6, 2021, when he “repeated his knowingly false claim regarding an illicit dump of more than a hundred thousand ballots in Detroit,”

That false claim would also inspire other supporters to take up that cause. 

The legend of Antrim County

Among those pursuing Trump’s claims was a little-known Michigan tax attorney named Matthew DePerno who gained prominence after filing a lawsuit claiming fraud in Antrim County after results from the November 2020 election briefly showed Biden winning in the predominantly Republican county. 

While the mistake was determined to have been caused by human error and quickly corrected, the Antrim County case was amplified by Trump and his supporters to push the falsehood that the 2020 election was rigged, an effort that culminated in the insurrection in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.

While pro-Trump rioters were breaking into the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of electoral votes for Biden’s victory, DePerno was across town, allegedly meeting with former Assistant Secretary of State Robert Destro. 

The Washington Post reported that the meeting came “as Trump’s allies were pressing theories that election machines had been hacked by foreign powers and were angling for Trump to employ the vast powers of the national security establishment to seize voting machines or even rerun the election.”

Although that plan never came to pass, and the Antrim County lawsuit was ultimately dismissed in December 2022 by the Michigan Supreme Court, DePerno was still able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in pursuit of the disproven claims and parlay his new found status to become the GOP nominee for Michigan attorney general. He continued to push the disproven claims of a rigged election, while also threatening to lock up his opponent, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat. However, as DePerno ended up losing to Nessel by 9 points in the November 2022 election.

Now DePerno could face potential jail time after he and former state Rep. Daire Rendon (R-Lake City) were charged as part of an investigation into potential tampering with election equipment, part of an effort that prosecutors say was meant to bear out Trump’s continued claims of election fraud.

Fake electors plot is hatched 

Meanwhile, Trump’s efforts to derail the electoral process only gained steam in the weeks after the 2020 election.

Because Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes and thus all 16 of the state’s presidential electors, Trump’s effort to try and prevent Biden from legally assuming the office of president involved more than just pushing forward disproven conspiracy claims, but also actively seeking to fraudulently hijack the process itself and illegally divert those electors to his column.

On Nov. 20, 2020, the indictment filed by Smith notes that Trump held a meeting in the Oval Office with Michigan legislative leaders, including then-state Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) and then-House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering).

“In the meeting, the Defendant raised his false claim, among others, of an illegitimate vote dump in Detroit,” said the indictment. “In response, the Michigan Senate Majority Leader [Shirkey] told the Defendant that he had lost Michigan not because of fraud, but because the Defendant had underperformed with certain voter populations in the state.”

Upon leaving their meeting, Shirkey and Chatfield issued a statement, quoted by the indictment, that reiterated fraud was not a factor in Trump’s loss in Michigan.

“The Senate and House Oversight Committees are actively engaged in a thorough review of Michigan’s elections process and we have faith in the committee process to provide greater transparency and accountability to our citizens,” said the statement. “We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors, just as we have said throughout this election.”

However, Trump tried to paint a different picture of the Oval Office meeting with Shirkey and Chatfield, tweeting afterwards, “massive voter fraud will be shown!”

Trump’s purported need to portray the meeting in that manner became clear during public hearings in 2022 of the bipartisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, which noted that on Nov. 12, 2020, Trump asked U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Tipton) to “check with key leadership in Michigan’s Legislature as to how supportive they could be in regards to pushing back on election irregularities and potential fraud.” Walberg responded that he had already acted on Trump’s request.

“‘I’ve had conversations with [Michigan House] Speaker Lee Chatfield, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, and Senate President Pro Tempore Aric Nesbitt,’” Walberg said, according to the committee’s report. “‘They all assured me they would look forward to speaking with the President to report on their continuing efforts’” related to overseeing the election “‘and receiving any suggestions from President Trump.’” 

That same day, the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint statement of election security officials stating that the election was “the most secure in American history,” and that there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

That conclusion undermined Trump’s thoroughly disproven contention that ballots had been manipulated and committee investigators say he asked Chad Wolf, his acting secretary of Homeland Security, to look into allegations of election irregularities in Michigan. 

“The next day, President Trump’s assistant sent Wolf a letter from Michigan State legislators raising claims about the election, including an incorrect claim that flawed Dominion software had caused votes to be counted for the wrong candidate,” stated the report.

The committee’s report notes a letter, dated Nov. 13, 2020, was sent to Benson from state Sen. Lana Theis (R-Brighton) and former state Sen. Tom Barrett (R-Charlotte). While the specific content of the letter to Benson remains unknown, Dominion voting systems were the type used in Antrim County (the basis of DePerno’s claims), although a myriad of audits, including a hand audit, demonstrated that the voting system was not compromised. 

A followup letter signed by 40 Republican legislators, including Theis and Barrett, was sent three days later to Benson, also calling into question the accuracy of Dominion software and calling for a full independent audit of the 2020 election results. 

It’s also notable that both Theis and Barrett were among 11 Michigan Republican senators whose names appear on an initial draft version of a letter dated Jan. 4, 2021, that requested Congress delay certification of the election at the scheduled Jan. 6 session, the same session that the insurrection attempted to derail. The final version of the letter, however, asked instead that Congress “pursue every available option” to examine claims of wrongdoing in the election, despite dozens of failed lawsuits and a lack of credible evidence of mass voter fraud.

But the Jan. 6 committee said Trump “or his team” were so frustrated that he couldn’t convince Shirkey and Chatfield to illegally alter the outcome of Michigan’s election results, they maliciously tweeted out Shirkey’s personal cell phone number and a number for Chatfield that turned out to be wrong.”

Following that since-deleted tweet, Shirkey received nearly 4,000 text messages while a former Petoskey resident reported being “inundated” with calls and texts intended for Chatfield.

On Dec. 2, 2020, the Michigan House Oversight Committee, chaired by now-Minority Leader Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.), held a hearing where Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis testified about GOP claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. In an unusual move, Giuliani took over the seven-hour meeting. He urged lawmakers to “take back your power under Article Two, Section One clause” of the U.S. Constitution.

Two days after the hearing, Dec. 4, 2020, the Smith indictment alleged that one of the six unnamed Trump co-conspirators sent a text message to Chatfield reiterating the unsupported claim of election fraud and attempting to get him to assist in reversing the ascertainment of Biden’s electors in Michigan as the legitimate electors.

“Looks like Georgia may well hold some factual hearings and change the certification under ArtIl sec 1 cl 2 of the Constitution. As [Co-Conspirator 2] explained they don’t just have the right to do it but the obligation. … Help me get this done in Michigan,” said the text.

Co-Conspirator 1 is identified in the committee’s indictment only as “an attorney who was willing to spread knowingly false claims and pursue strategies that the Defendant’s 2020 re-election campaign attorneys would not.” However, based on various statements in the indictment and other details, CNN has identified that person as Giuliani.

Then on Dec. 7, 2020, the indictment claims Co-Conspirator 1 sent a text intended for Shirkey that tried to again further the fake electors conspiracy.

“So I need you to pass a joint resolution from the Michigan legislature that states that, *the election is in dispute,* there’s an ongoing investigation by the Legislature, and *the [Biden] Electors sent by Governor [Gretchen] Whitmer are not the official Electors of the State of Michigan and do not fall within the Safe Harbor deadline of Dec 8 under Michigan law,” read the text.

While no such resolution was forthcoming, it wasn’t for a lack of trying. 

The Jan. 6 committee report confirmed earlier reporting that Michigan legislators had been approached in December 2020 by the Trump campaign seeking their support for the false electors scheme. 

Documents from the committee indicated that five Republicans — Sens. Jon Bumstead (R-Newaygo), Rick Outman (R-Six Lakes) and Roger Victory (R-Husonville), along with former Reps. Sue Allor (R-Wolverine) and Daire Rendon (Lake City) —were all reported to have said yes, while former Rep. Mary Whiteford (R-Casco Twp.) was listed as a “maybe.”

Bumstead reportedly said that “there is a lot of support and interest. Would be supportive of any actions we take,” while Outman expressed support for the fake elector plan, but wanted “to see the evidence of fraud. A bit unfamiliar with the process and what appointing electors looks like.” 

Abhi Rahman, communications director for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), said that many GOP lawmakers continue to spread falsehoods about the 2020 election three years later.

“On the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, Michigan remains ground zero for Republican state legislators’ anti-democratic ties and actions leading up to that appalling day,” Rahman told the Michigan Advance. “In the 2022 midterms, the DLCC tracked dozens of Michigan legislators and candidates who were either in DC on Jan. 6 or otherwise bolstered Donald Trump’s lies. Those still in office and running again in 2024 must be defeated. The only way to preserve our democracy is to elect Democratic state legislators all across Michigan.”

A ‘hair-brained idea’

Both state and federal investigations revealed a plan for 16 Republicans, identifying themselves as electors, to fraudulently submit a false certificate at the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, when the Michigan Electoral College met in the state Capitol to certify the state’s election results and awarded Biden all 16 of Michigan’s electoral votes.

Laura Cox, a former House member who, at the time, was chair of the Michigan Republican Party, told investigators for the committee that the plan by the fake electors to hide in the Capitol building in Lansing and then try and cast their votes as the legitimate electors was “a hair-brained idea,” that was “insane and inappropriate.”

Cox said she was not expecting the slate of fake Republican electors to sign a fraudulent document declaring Trump as the winner in Michigan. She had a different, more “ceremonial” plan in mind that was ultimately scuttled.

“They [the Trump campaign] were asking me to facilitate having the electors meet and sign some sort of document,” Cox said, which she was “uncomfortable with.”

“We came up with a document that we would have them have a ceremonial meeting, and one person would sign a document stating that if perhaps something were to happen in the courts, they were willing and able to serve as electors from Michigan for Donald Trump and [former Vice President] Mike Pence,” Cox said of her own plan.

However, Cox later testified that a plan presented to her by Hillsdale College attorney Robert Norton was to have false electors hide out in the Michigan Capitol the night before the electoral votes needed to be submitted so they could turn fake ones in for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020, when the Capitol was closed to the public. Cox said that she called Shirkey to put a stop to that idea.

But Dec. 14 went very differently from the plan outlined by Cox, who wasn’t present at the time due to COVID-19, which she contracted from Giuliani, who has since been indicted in Georgia alongside Trump for charges having to do with efforts to overthrow the election in 2020.

When Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged the 16 fake electors last July with eight felony counts, including Meshawn Maddock and Michigan GOP National Committeewoman Kathy Berden, she said the defendants had instead signed a series of certificates as the “duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan,” and then sent the false documents to the United States Senate and National Archives saying Trump had been reelected.

While Maddock and her co-defendants had said very little publicly about that day since the charges were filed, just two days after signing the false certificates, she said the group had been “guided” in its efforts by lawyers from Trump’s campaign.

“I’m an elector for Donald Trump from the Michigan Republican Party,” Meshawn Maddock said during a Dec. 16, 2020, interview on the right-wing, Lansing-based Steve Gruber Show. “I, along with the other 15 electors, were guided by legal minds – attorneys for our president, some very incredible constitutional attorneys – I’ve never in my whole life appreciated legal minds and attorneys before.”

Additionally, the Detroit News this week reported that emails by Trump’s campaign staff indicated that they assisted in preparing the official mailing of the false certificates to Pence and the National Archives.

That prompted Maddock to post to her X account on Friday in an effort to try and downplay the alleged criminality of what she and the other fake electors are accused of.

“Many people attended Stop the Steal rallies after the Nov 2020 election including myself on Dec 8,” posted Maddock, along with a picture of herself at such a rally. “Obviously we didn’t believe Biden won the election. We never tried to replace the Dem electors.”

She then put up a screenshot of a post from her Facebook page dated Dec. 14, 2020, which stated, “Today we did not replace any Democrat Electors. We sent Republican Electors alongside the Democrat Electors just to be safe.”

However, that isn’t consistent with an affidavit in support of the charges filed by Howard Shock, a special agent investigator with the Michigan Department of Attorney General. Shock said the defendants, including Maddock, appeared to have signed a number of documents as the “duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Michigan,” including a document submitting 16 electoral votes for Trump and Pence. 

According to the affidavit, the individuals who signed the documents falsely asserted their status as duly elected and qualified electors, in addition to claiming they met in the state Capitol, when in fact, they had been turned away by Michigan State Police as they were not authorized to be present during the balloting.

Furthermore, as the Advance previously reported, on Jan. 5, 2021, the National Archivist of the United States reportedly received the certificate casting votes for Trump and Pence, which according to the affidavit, had a return address on the envelope holding the document listed as “Kathleen Berden, Chair of the Michigan Republican Electoral College.” A copy of the document was sent to the Michigan Department of Attorney General. 

Investigators reviewed another document retained by the U.S. Senate Archives, where Berden’s information was also listed as the return address. The Document was signed by 16 people identifying themselves as “the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from Michigan.”

The investigators later confirmed that two envelopes had been mailed from the East Lansing Post Office on Dec. 15, 2020, with Berden’s name, address and title printed on the envelope.

Meanwhile, the criminal cases against Maddock and 14 other defendants are continuing to work their way through Ingham County District Court. If convicted, they could face up to 14 years in prison. The 16th defendant, James Renner of Lansing, had his criminal charges dropped as a part of a cooperation agreement with the prosecution of the other members of the group.

‘A state-level dress rehearsal’

While most narratives about Jan. 6, including this one, tend to start in the hours and days following the 2020 election, there are many convinced a better place to start would be April 30, 2020.

That’s the day hundreds of right-wing protesters, many armed with guns, flooded the Michigan Capitol lawn in Lansing, as well as the public gallery of the Senate, which was in session to vote on GOP-sponsored bills that would limit Whitmer’s power to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Shirkey met with some of the armed protesters, but they were not allowed to enter the House. 

During the second impeachment trial for Trump, held to determine whether to convict him for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Democratic U.S. House managers called the armed rally at the Michigan Capitol eight months earlier “a state-level dress rehearsal.”

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) pointed to tweets Trump sent in the weeks before the rally attacking Whitmer after she had requested more federal support during the pandemic, including one that said simply: “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!”

“Trump’s marching orders were followed by aggressive action on the ground,” Raskin said.

Raskin said the events at the Michigan Capitol were “a preview of the coming insurrection,” highlighting a number of parallels between the two events.

“This Trump inspired mob may indeed look familiar to you,” Raskin said. “Confederate battle flags, MAGA hats, weapons, camo army gear. Just like the insurrectionists who showed up and invaded this chamber on Jan. 6.”

Raskin noted that Trump realized his rhetoric had the ability to incite violence, pointing to the foiled extremist plot to kidnap and kill Whitmer, in which it’s believed at least five of the 14 men charged attended the April 30, 2020, rally. Nine of the men were later convicted of various charges, while five others were acquitted.

Following the events in Michigan, Raskin said Trump understood the power his words had, and purposefully used the same language when he told supporters that the election was stolen, to fight for their country, and to march to the U.S. Capitol.

Ultimately, however, Raskin and the other impeachment managers failed to get the 67 votes needed, with only seven Republican senators joining all Democratic and independent senators in voting to convict Trump, 57-43. 

‘Be there, will be wild!’

In the early morning hours of Dec. 19, 2020, five days after the fake GOP electors met at Republican Party headquarters in Lansing, and just minutes after a six-hour Oval Office meeting described by a White House aide as “unhinged,” Trump sent out a tweet that Raskin said would “galvanize his followers, unleash a political firestorm, and change the course of our history as a country.”

“Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election,” Trump tweeted, despite testimony that several key advisors had already informed him there was no longer a legal path to victory. 

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” he continued, referring to the day Congress was scheduled to formally certify Biden’s Electoral College victory. 

He then concluded with five words that will forever be etched in history: “Be there, will be wild!”

Among the hundreds of supporters who saw the tweet and responded were Robert Schornak of Roseville and Daniel Herendeen of Chesterfield. Both men were arrested for participating in the attack, and later testified to the Jan. 6 House committee that they came to Washington, D.C., that day because each believed Trump’s tweet was a call for them to be there. Herendeen and Schornak both later pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and were sentenced to 36 months of probation.

They were among approximately two dozen Michigan residents charged with offenses related to the Jan. 6 riot that resulted in five deaths and left more than 170 police officers injured.

Included among them was failed 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley, who was charged with four misdemeanor counts including destruction of government property, remaining in a restricted area, disorderly conduct and engaging in physical violence in a restricted area.

Prosecutors said Kelley climbed scaffolding next to the northwest stairs and then ripped a protective tarp covering the scaffolding, which then allowed some rioters to advance on the Capitol Building. However, Kelley was sentenced to two-months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to a single charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.

According to the New York Times, of the more than 1,200 arrests made since Jan. 6, approximately 870 defendants have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial, receiving sentences varying between just a few days behind bars to 22 years in prison. Just two have been acquitted, while the remaining 350 cases are still pending. 

However, new arrests are still being made, including that of Spencer Offman of Novi, charged this week with multiple counts, including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.

There were also many Michiganders present that day who weren’t charged, but their attendance at an event meant to subvert the Constitution is seen by many as problematic because, like Kelley, they either sought or hold public office.

While Matt Maddock and Meshawn Maddock were in Washington, they said they were not present for the Jan. 6 Stop the Steal rally or the riot that followed. But two months earlier, Matt Maddock had warned: “As soon as we lose our faith in elections…the next step was the Civil War.” He also signed a letter calling on Pence to delay certifying the election as well as legal efforts to block election results from being certified in Michigan and other key states. 

State Rep. Angela Rigas (R-Caledonia), was elected to office in 2022, well after the insurrection, but openly admitted during her campaign to participating in the Stop the Steal rally that preceded it and claimed she was tear-gassed within the Capitol grounds. 

Rigas has said that she considers being called an “insurrectionist” and “terrorist” a “compliment,” and believes participants in the insurrection were “exercising their God-given Constitutional rights.”

Other rally attendees who sought office in 2022, but failed, include:

• Mellissa Carone: After her testimony during the Dec. 2, 2020, Michigan House hearing was widely mocked, including on “Saturday Night Live,” Carone ran for both the Michigan House and Senate but was disqualified from the ballot. She ended up as a lieutenant governor candidate for the U.S. Taxpayers Party. Carone said she was present for Trump’s speech at the Stop the Steal rally, but falsely blamed the violence that followed on Antifa.
• Nevin Cooper-Keel: Ran for election to the 80th House District, but failed to make the primary ballot. Ultimately, Cooper-Keel appeared on the primary ballot for the 43rd House District, but lost to now-Rep. Rachelle Smit, who went on to win the seat. Cooper-Keel said he was in D.C. on Jan. 6 “peacefully protesting and joining with my president, upon his call to show up. I had a wonderful time and met many great patriots.” 
• Jason Howland: Campaigned for Michigan’s 31st House District, but failed to make the primary ballot. He was spotted in the crowd pushing up the Capitol steps on Jan. 6. Howland, along with Kelley, also co-founded the American Patriot Council, a right-wing group that rose to national prominence after many of the militia members who allegedly plotted to kidnap and kill Whitmer reportedly attended the group’s heavily armed rallies.
• Larry Hull: Ran for election to the 106th House District, but lost in the Republican primary. Hull said he attended Trump’s Jan. 6 rally and later stood outside the boundary fence to the U.S. Capitol. He falsely claimed Trump supporters were incited into the Capitol by “provocateurs” whom he believed were undercover federal agents working as part of a “total set-up to discredit Trump.”
• Audra Lemons-Johnson: Ran for the 3rd Congressional District seat, but failed to make the primary ballot. Lemons-Johnson, who originally gained fame as the MAGA bride, said that while she attended the Stop the Steal rally, she did not enter the building in the riot that followed. On her official YouTube account, she identifies herself as a member of the Michigan Liberty Militia, which helped provide security for the April 30, 2020, armed protest in Lansing. The militia’s leader, Phil Robinson, also said he personally knew some of those charged in the plot to kidnap and kill Whitmer, who he believed were “not guilty.”
• Jon Rocha: Ran for the 78th House District, but was disqualified for filing a false affidavit. He later ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign. He also campaigned for the 6th Congressional District seat. Rocha said he was present at the rally, but left before the violence began.
• Michael Shallal: Ran for the 30th House District, but failed to make the primary ballot. Shallal was present in the Capitol that day and falsely described the Jan. 6 attack as “an inside job, a well-orchestrated coup against a sitting president facilitated by Nazi [then-Speaker Nancy]Pelosi and the federal police.”
• Diane Saber: Ran for the 12th House District. Saber said she was also present at the protest in D.C., but falsely claimed Democrats and others set up the event to make Trump look bad. 
• Andrew Sebolt: Ran for the 102nd House District, but lost in the primary. Sebolt said he was present at the pro-Trump rally.
• Linda Lee Tarver: Ran for the Michigan Board of Education in 2022 and lost in the general election. A former Michigan Department of State employee, Tarver said she was in D.C. on Jan. 6, but “did NOT enter the Capitol, I did NOT burn down buildings, I did NOT destroy property as BLM [Black Lives Matter] did prior to this event.”

There were three other elected officials from Michigan in the Capitol on Jan. 6 who also played a role in the effort to halt certification.

U.S. Reps. Jack Bergman (R-Watersmeet), Tim Walberg (R-Tipton) and Lisa McClain (R-Bruce Twp.), all voted to block Biden electors just hours after the insurrection. 

All three cruised to easy reelection victories in safe GOP seats in 2022.

Trump is running for president again in 2024, despite facing 91 state and federal felony charges in four jurisdictions. The Republican, who continues to falsely claim that he won the 2020 election, has vowed to be a “dictator on Day One.” Pro-democracy groups have warned that Americans need to be vigilant going into the election.

“Three years after the insurrection, it’s become clear that January 6, 2021 was the beginning of the overt efforts to upend our democracy, not the end,” said Informing Democracy Managing Director Peter Bondi. “From local officials posing threats to fair elections to the weaponization of election conspiracy theories, the anti-democracy movement has grown in strength, became better organized, and tested new tactics to use in the year ahead. Despite these continued efforts to undo the Constitution, when the Congress gathers to certify the results of the next presidential election, on January 6, 2025, democracy will and must prevail.”

Advance Editor Susan J. Demas contributed to this report.