“Embarrassing”: Even Republicans fume at Michigan GOP for defending candidates busted for fraud – By Igor Derysh (Salon) / May 28, 2022
“This is of a magnitude beyond my imagination,” GOP election lawyer says, accusing candidates of “despicable abuse”
After spending years pushing former President Donald Trump’s “Big Lie,” the Michigan Republican Party is defending its own candidates who were caught up in a massive fraud scheme.
The Michigan Bureau of Elections released a report on Monday recommending that leading Republican gubernatorial candidates James Craig and Perry Johnson, as well as three others, be disqualified from the ballot after submitting too many fake petition signatures. The bureau said it had identified 36 petition circulators who submitted more than 68,000 fake signatures across 10 sets of nominating contests, including the governor’s primary. The state Board of Canvassers on Thursday deadlocked on whether to accept or reject the recommendation, effectively leaving in place the bureau’s decision to disqualify all five candidates, although Republicans have vowed to challenge the outcome in court.
Republican election attorney John Pirich told Salon that the fraud scheme uncovered by the election officials is “the largest I’ve ever seen.”
