GOP Michigan AG Nominee May Be In Wee Spot Of Legal Bother Over Election Machine Breach

It's always the ones you most suspect!

It's goin' down for real in Michigan, this week, where state Attorney General Dana Nessel's office is requesting a Special Prosecuting Attorney (SPA) to investigate a band of Big Lie ratfuckers led by her electoral opponent Matthew DePerno.

DePerno, a veteran of the Krakenhead election lawsuits, won Donald Trump's endorsement and raised his public profile — plus hundreds of thousands of dollars — by flogging bullshit about THE MACHINES stealing the election for Joe Biden in Michigan. An investigation by the Republican -led state Senate Oversight Committee concluded a year ago that there was no fraud in the 2020 election , not in person, and not by machine. But no matter! In DePerno's telling, it was simply unpossible for a state that voted twice for Barack Obama and boasts two Democratic senators and a Democratic governor to have voted for Joe Biden in 2020. And according to the AG, DePerno was "one of the prime instigators of the conspiracy" to unlawfully "gain access to voting tabulators" from multiple Michigan counties.

Nessel's deputy Danielle Hagaman-Clark, chief of the Criminal Trials and Appeals Division, made the allegations in a petition to the Michigan Prosecuting Attorneys Coordinating Council to appoint an SPA, a document that was posted online by Politico after first being reported by Reuters . In the petition and a letter to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson requesting an investigation, Nessel's office describes a scheme wherein GOP state Rep. Daire Rendon and Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf (another Big Lie litigant ) contacted various county election officials claiming the legislature and law enforcement officials were investigating vote fraud and needed access to the machines.

Reuters points out that DePerno's private investigator Michael Lynch, who had no right to access the machines, appears to have done significant legwork here. Which is hella sketchy , and that's before they even got the five tabulators into "hotels and/or AIRBNB’s" to shoot a vote fraud porno about their unauthorized probe. Naturally, DePerno, who wants to be Michigan's top law enforcement official, served as director. Indeed, this brain genius seems to have taken no steps to conceal his role in the plot, even posting the video on his law firm's website and using it as an exhibit in one of his doomed election lawsuits. The film includes footage of a machine from Roscommon County with the serial number covered over with redpastiestape, although the number was visible from the audit tape it spat out on camera. So dirty!

When real investigators came to seize the machine in April of 2022, it still had the red tape on it. Doh! The tabulators had also been subjected to physical tampering rendering them useless for future elections. All of which amounts to crimes, according to the petition.

The Michigan State Police and the special agents with the MDAG have completed a preliminary review and it is now time for a prosecutorial review for charges that include but are not limited to Conspiracy, MCL 750.157a; Using a Computer System to Commit a Crime, MCL 752.796; Willfully Damaging a Voting Machine, MCL 168.932(b); Malicious Destruction of Property, MCL 750.377a; Fraudulent Access to a Computer or Computer System, MCL 752.795a; and False Pretenses, MCL 750.218.

And because the upcoming election pits Nessel, who respects legal ethics, against DePerno, the AG is asking for an SPA to take over the prosecution, a detail omitted when DePerno's campaign manager Tyson Shepard whined to reporters about his boss being maliciously persecuted for his political beliefs.

"Dana Nessel knows she is losing this race," he huffed to The Detroit News . "She is desperate to win this election at all costs and is now targeting DePerno, her political opponent. Her actions are unethical and will further demonstrate to the voters that she is unfit for office."

Or, they'll illustrate that the GOP has once again nominated a partisan crank who can't be bothered to obey the law and has no business enforcing it. Guess we'll find out which in November.

[ Politico / Reuters / Detroit News ]

Follow Liz Dye on Twitter!

Click the widget to keep your Wonkette ad-free and feisty. And if you're ordering from Amazon, use this link, because reasons .