So-called fake elector wants case thrown out after Michigan attorney general calls him 'brainwashed'

One of the so-called fake electors wants criminal charges thrown out over Michigan Attorney General Dane Nessel's comments on the case.

Nessel told a left-leaning group's Sept. 18 virtual event that she believed the 16 Republicans had been “brainwashed” and “genuinely” believed Donald Trump had won Michigan's presidential election, and an attorney for one of the fake electors filed a motion to dismiss the charges, reported the Associated Press.

“They legit believe that,” Nessel told the group.

Kevin Kijewski, an attorney for the defendant Clifford Frost, filed the motion to dismiss Tuesday, arguing that Nessel's comments were an “explicit and clear admission” that the phony electors hadn't intended to defraud anyone, and an attorney for co-defendant Mari-Ann Henry filed a similar motion Tuesday asking the court to “nullify the government’s entire case.”

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A third defendant's attorney was evaluating whether to file a motion to dismiss, and the Republican assistant attorney general who Nessel defeated in 2018 said her remarks could play a key role in the case.

“I don’t think there’s any argument that the action was there," said Tom Leonard, a former Michigan assistant attorney general and the GOP nominee against Nessel. "The question is: What did these defendants intend to do when they showed up and signed those documents? Nessel, the state’s chief law enforcement officer who put that pen to paper charging these defendants, has now openly said that the intent was not there.”