Trump's fake electors 'have been brainwashed': Michigan AG

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently poured cold water on the idea that any of the fake electors she criminally charged would flip on former President Donald Trump because they had been "brainwashed" into supporting him.

In a leaked recording obtained by CNN, Nessel discussed the fake Trump electors during a virtual event with liberal activists earlier this week.

“People talk a lot about, oh, why don’t you start flipping some of those people so that they can become witnesses against the remaining defendants, the worst-acting defendants?” Nessel said. “The problem is, these are people who have been brainwashed.”

Nessel went on to claim that the people she charged appeared to be true believers who still believe, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that Trump won the 2020 election.

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"How do you flip someone who concedes that they did everything that they’re accused of doing, but what they say is, ‘we believe that we were in the right,'" she said. "'We think that Donald Trump is the real winner of the election’ … They really legit believe that. They genuinely believe it. Somebody can’t even plead guilty if they wanted to, because they can’t admit that what they did violated the law, because they still think they’re right."

Former federal prosecutor Shan Wu said that it was "inappropriate" for Nessel to be discussing the case with activists and said her comments could make getting a conviction in the case harder.

"If you think these people are brainwashed, then they didn’t have the right state of mind and couldn’t form the criminal intent to break the law, because they were being brainwashed by others," he told CNN.