Donald Trump Fake Elector Says She Was 'Duped' Into Scheme: 'Very Alarming'

One of the people charged with acting as a fake elector for former president Donald Trump in Michigan has said she was "duped."

Michigan's attorney general Dana Nessel announced felony charges against 16 Republicans "for their role in the alleged false electors scheme" last week, accusing them of submitting false certificates that portrayed them as legitimate electors in the 2020 election which saw Joe Biden win the presidency.

Nessel, a Democrat, said all 16 people would face eight criminal charges, including forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and uttering and publishing. The top charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

It marks the first time anyone has been charged in a fake electors scheme to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The scheme allegedly took place in several states as part of efforts to keep Trump in power after his loss in 2020.

One of the people charged in Michigan is 73-year-old Michele Lundgren, who unsuccessfully ran in 2022 for a Detroit-based seat in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Lundgren, from Detroit, told a local news station that the only thing she signed after being summoned to the Michigan Republican Party headquarters in Lansing in December 2020 was a sign-up sheet on a note card.

"We were duped," she told WDIV. "The scam was bigger than all of us."

She said she had received a call from a member of the Republican Party, asking her to come to the meeting.

"We were told to come, they needed us," she said. The Michigan Republican Party has been contacted for comment via email.

She said after being served coffee and cake, she and others were told to sign an index card. She says that signature was lifted and placed on a federal election document.

"We signed a sign-in sheet with our names. It fits right into the real elector ballot," Lundgren said.

She said she became suspicious of the whole thing when her request to have her husband come in was denied.

"I asked if my husband could come in. They said no, no outsiders," she said. "And that became very alarming to me. This was kind of suspicious."

Lundgren said that she and others walked to the state Capitol Building with Ian Northon, a Trump attorney, on the day the state's electoral votes were certified.

"We were not allowed in the building," she said. "I was an innocent little bystander in this whole thing thinking I was doing my civic duty."

Newsweek has contacted Lundgren and Norton for comment via email.

An affidavit supporting the complaint said the 16 people charged "falsely asserted that they were the duly elected and qualified Electors for president and vice president from the State of Michigan."

The affidavit said they "falsely asserted they met in the state Capital (sic) on December 14, 2020 at 2:00PM."

Lundgren and three others—Meshawn Maddock, Marian Sheridan and Kenneth Thompson—appeared at the state Capitol on December 14, 2020, with then-state Rep. Daire Rendon, who said the "electors" were there to cast their votes, the affidavit said said. They were turned away by the Michigan State Police and not admitted to the building.

Northon presented a manila envelope, claiming it contained the Republican electoral votes, and attempted to deliver it to the Michigan Senate, the affidavit said.

"The false electors' actions undermined the public's faith in the integrity of our elections and, we believe, also plainly violated the laws by which we administer our elections in Michigan," Nessel said in a statement last week.

"These defendants are alleged to have met covertly in the basement of the Michigan Republican Party headquarters on December 14th, and signed their names to multiple certificates stating they were the "duly elected and qualified electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America for the State of Michigan." These false documents were then transmitted to the United States Senate and National Archives in a coordinated effort to award the state's electoral votes to the candidate of their choosing, in place of the candidates actually elected by the people of Michigan."

The 16 individuals are set to appear for arraignment in Ingham County at a date provided to each by the court, Nessel's office said.

Nessel's office has been contacted for further comment via email.