A fake Trump voter in Michigan told prosecutors of regret and anger

One of the Michigan Republicans who acted as a fake voter for Donald J. Trump expressed deep regret over his participation, according to a recording of his interview with the attorney general’s office obtained by The New York Times.

The voter, James Renner, is so far the only Trump voter to reach an agreement with the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who in July filed criminal charges against all 16 of the fake Trump electors in the stands. In October, Mrs. Nessel’s office all charges dropped against Mr. Renner after he agreed to cooperate.

Mr Renner, 77, was belatedly replaced from the electoral roll in December 2020 after two others opted out. He told the attorney general’s office that after reviewing testimony from the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, he later realized that he and other constituents had acted inappropriately.

“I cannot emphasize enough how angry I was when I read the information in the J6 transcripts because the legitimate process had not been followed,” he said in the interview. “I felt like I had gotten into a situation that I should never have gotten involved in.”

Mr. Renner’s attorney, Matthew G. Borgula, had no comment.

Charges have now been filed against fake voters in three states – Georgia, Michigan and Nevada – and investigations are underway in other states, including Arizona And New Mexico. In Georgia, prosecutors in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, have looked far beyond the voters themselves and charged Mr. Trump, the former president, and many of his key allies for their efforts to keep him in power despite his loss in 2020. Trump also faces election interference charges from Jack Smith, the special counsel appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

In Michigan, Ms. Nessel, a Democrat, has only sued voters but said her investigation is still open. During their interview with Mr. Renner, her investigators asked about a number of others involved, including Shawn Flynn, a lawyer who worked with the Trump campaign on the ground in Michigan, and Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer. (Mr. Giuliani is among the suspects in Georgia; both he and Mr. Trump have pleaded not guilty.)

It is not clear whether they, or Mr. Trump himself, have legal exposure in Michigan. The Detroit News recently reported that Mr. Trump was recorded pressuring two members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers in December 2020 cannot be certified the election results, providing direct evidence of his role in efforts to overturn the vote in Michigan.

Mr. Renner is a former state trooper and retired businessman who has volunteered as a local party activist in Clinton County, near Lansing, the state capital. He had never served as a voter and typically supported Republican campaigns by handing out signs and handing out fliers. He said he was contacted by the head of the Republican Party about a day before the electors were to convene on December 14, 2020. He was asked to fill in for someone who dropped out and agreed to do so.

Because Michigan had already been certified for Joseph R. Biden Jr., who won the state by more than 150,000 votes, Trump electors were not allowed to meet at the Capitol, which was largely closed at the time due to the pandemic. They eventually met in the basement of the state Republican headquarters.

At a hearing earlier this month before several voters, Laura Cox, the former chair of the Republican Party, testified that she and other local party officials drafted language for voters to sign that made it clear that they were acting only on a basis of contingencies, in case the Trump campaign’s election disputes succeed. But Ms Cox was sidelined by Covid on the day of the meeting, and she said the Trump campaign went against her instructions by not using such language.

At the same pretrial hearing, Terri Lynn Land, a former Michigan secretary of state who was originally designated as a 2020 Republican elector, said she declined to meet on Dec. 14, 2020, because Mr. Trump had not been certified by state officials. Tony Zammit, a former state party spokesman who attended part of the meeting, testified that he believed the “vast majority” of voters were not at fault but “agreed with what the lawyers told them.”

Mr. Renner said in his interview with investigators that when he appeared, “I knew nothing about the election process.” Three of the voters took the lead during the signing session, he said: Meshawn Maddock, a former co-chairman of the Republican Party; Kathleen Berden, a Republican national committeewoman; and Marya Rodriguez, the only lawyer among the voters. (They have all pleaded not guilty.)

In the interview, Mr Renner said that “I accepted that those in power” knew “what they were talking about.”

But he said he later began studying House transcripts and the official elector process after he and the other fake Trump electors were sued in civil court. this January. And he was alarmed by what he found, he said.

“It was only then that I realized that, wait a minute, there is an official, state-authorized process for this,” he said. Before that, he said: ‘I’ve never been a voter, I’ve never talked to anyone about it. I was used to a much more informal process at the provincial level. And so I started to get suspicious about what was going on.”

He said he later realized that “what happened wasn’t legitimate.”

In Georgia, more than half of fake Trump voters agreed to cooperate with prosecutors before charges were filed there. In Michigan, all eight charges against Mr. Renner, including forgery and conspiracy, were dropped as part of his agreement with Ms. Nessel’s office.

Her ongoing investigation means the legal fallout from Michigan’s last presidential election won’t be over until the next one begins. Hearings in the election case are expected to last until February; The state’s presidential primaries take place on February 27.

“I am very upset, I don’t show it, but I am,” Mr. Renner told investigators, adding that to say he felt betrayed is an understatement. That’s all I can say.”