Washington, DC — Over the weekend, the Michigan GOP officially nominated far-right extremist and Trump-backed 2020 election denier, who’s currently under investigation in a voting machine probe, Matt DePerno as the party’s Attorney General candidate. As the Republican convention was underway in Michigan, The New York Times’ Alexandra Berzon and Nick Corasaniti covered how “DePerno’s political rise has been tied to a debunked election report.”

The NY Times writes, “Several weeks after the 2020 election, as Donald J. Trump worked to overturn his defeat, he called a Republican lawmaker in Michigan with an urgent request. Mr. Trump had seen a report that made wild claims about rigged voting machines in a rural northern county in the state. He wanted his allies to look into it. The president told the lawmaker that a Michigan lawyer, Matthew DePerno, had already filed a lawsuit and that it looked promising, according to the lawmaker and two others familiar with the call.”

“Mr. DePerno’s involvement will only undermine your cause, the lawmaker, who along with the others asked for anonymity to discuss the private conversation, told the president. Mr. Trump seemed to dig in: If everyone hates Mr. DePerno, he should be on my team, Mr. Trump responded, according to two of the people.”

“He is among a coterie of election deniers running for offices that have significant authority over elections, worrying some election experts, Democrats and some Republicans across the country,” the NY Times writes.

“This month, the Michigan attorney general’s office released documents that suggest Mr. DePerno was a key orchestrator of a separate plot to gain improper access to voting machines in three other Michigan counties…Mr. DePerno played a critical role in the report mentioned by Mr. Trump about that rural county, Antrim. The report turned a minor clerical error into a major conspiracy theory, and was later dismissed as ‘idiotic’ by William P. Barr, an attorney general under Mr. Trump, and ‘demonstrably false’ by Republicans in the Michigan Senate.”

“For some who have watched his career, there are parallels between Mr. DePerno’s dive into election conspiracies and his recent legal record. He has at times used the legal system to advance specious claims and unfounded allegations detailed in a blizzard of lengthy filings, according to an examination of court records in some of his cases and interviews with attorneys and judges.”

The NY Times’ story gives another crystal clear example of why DePerno is wildly unfit to be Michigan’s Attorney General.

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