Filing urges US Supreme Court to intervene in Michigan's 2020 elector cases

Craig Mauger, The Detroit News on Jul 17, 2025

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LANSING, Mich. — One of the 16 Michigan Republicans who signed a certificate falsely claiming Donald Trump won the state's 2020 presidential election wants the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in his state-level prosecution.

In a Thursday filing, lawyers for Clifford Frost of Warren contended the criminal cases against the GOP electors were brought in bad faith by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the nation's high court should step in and block the pending forgery charges.

Frost's lawyers argued that Nessel, a Democrat, had brought the charges to "retaliate against" the Republican electors and had "no reasonable expectation of obtaining valid convictions."

"The preliminary exam, the potential binding over for trial and the psychic cost of enduring a prosecution that does not describe a crime have violated Frost’s constitutional rights," his lawyers wrote in the new filing.

Among Frost's legal team is Kevin Kijewski, a Republican who is campaigning to be Michigan's next attorney general. Nessel can't run again in 2026 because of the state's term limits.

The new U.S. Supreme Court request is likely a long shot because the court acts on only a fraction of the petitions it receives each year.

A district court judge and a court of appeals panel previously denied Frost's attempts to get the federal court system to stop the charges pending in the state courts.

In January 2024, Judge Robert Jonker, who serves in Michigan's Western District, wrote that there was "nothing remotely unique or exceptional about Frost’s arguments that would require" the federal court to intervene in the ongoing state-level prosecution.

Ingham County District Court Judge Kristen Simmons is expected to rule in September on whether Nessel's office provided enough evidence to show there's probable cause to believe crimes occurred and whether the cases can proceed to trial.

Simmons held three sets of preliminary examinations for the Republican defendants who are facing felony forgery charges after participating in a meeting inside Michigan GOP headquarters on Dec. 14, 2020.

The document the Republicans signed during the gathering said they were Michigan's "duly elected and qualified" presidential electors and was eventually used by Trump advisers in an unsuccessful bid to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Biden had won Michigan's 16 electoral votes by defeating Trump by about 154,000 votes in November 2020 election.

The GOP electors pleaded not guilty and have contended they had no intent to defraud anyone.

On July 18, 2023, Nessel announced eight felony charges against each of the 16 Republicans whose names appeared on the false electoral certificate. The top charges carry a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. One of the electors, James Renner of Lansing, reached a cooperation agreement with Nessel's office, and the charges were dropped against him.

"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 July 2023.

Kijewski said Thursday the prosecution of the GOP electors was "lawfare."

"The Supreme Court must clarify that one politically motivated prosecution is one too many, protecting all Michiganders from government weaponization," Kijewski said.

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