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Dana Nessel Threatened With Criminal Prosecution If Trump-Backed Rival Wins 2022 AG Race

DePerno insists Trump won Michigan despite months of investigations

Jason A. Michael

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel came under fire at a rally on the Capitol steps in Lansing on Tuesday. Matthew DePerno, a Republican attorney who has announced his intention to run for attorney general and defeat Nessel in 2022, led the rally. DePerno incited the crowd with his remarks to prosecute Nessel if she doesn't conduct a forensic audit of the 2020 election results. 

DePerno has falsely claimed since November that Trump won Michigan. This, despite the fact several audits have already taken place and confirmed that Biden won the state by three percentage points, or 154,000 votes. Various court rulings and a state Senate Oversight Committee investigation have also upheld the results. 

"I think it's important that people remember that the investigation that he's talking about was referred to my office by Republicans on the Senate Oversight Committee in the state of Michigan," Nessel said on the MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show this morning. "They did an extensive analysis and review, and they conducted hearings over the course of six months on the issue of whether there was any election fraud."

The Committee concluded there was no voter fraud. But that's not all they decided.

"They did conclude that there were actors out there, bad actors, that were essentially exploiting people and using it to raise money. And this individual, Matthew DePerno, they suggested was one of those people," said Nessel.

The Committee referred those claims for a criminal investigation to Nessel's office.

"It was shortly after that that Matthew DePerno declared his candidacy to run against me, and then declared that he, instead, would like to prosecute me. Now, I isolated myself from the case. I had nothing to do with it. But the important thing is he is utilizing that to call for me to be locked up and prosecuted, and I take him at his word. [I believe] if he does beat me in 2024 that that's exactly what he intends to do."

Nessel said a DePerno victory would be a great hit to democracy in the state.

"If people like Matthew DePerno end up winning in these significant swing states, for both attorney general and secretary of state, I think democracy as we know it will be completely gone by 2024. And, that, irrespective of who gets the most votes, the candidate of their choice, which clearly is Donald Trump, will become president, and we'll be reduced to an oligarchy much like Russia or other states of that nature, and we'll no longer be a democratic republic."

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