LANSING, Mich. – On Tuesday, a Michigan judge threw out criminal charges against individuals accused of falsely claiming that President Donald Trump won the 2020 election in Michigan. This decision is a significant setback for prosecutors amid similar legal challenges in four other states facing complications.

District Court Judge Kristen D. Simmons announced in a hearing that the 15 Republicans involved would not go to trial. These cases have lingered since Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, filed the charges over two years ago.

Judge Simmons stated there was no fraudulent intent in the actions of the defendants. Regardless of their stance, whether “right, wrong, or indifferent,” they genuinely believed there were issues with the election, she noted.

“I believe they were executing their constitutional right to seek redress,” Simmons said.

The group, composed of some prominent Michigan Republican Party members, faced eight counts of forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. These serious felony charges carried the potential of 14 years in prison.

As the judge dismissed the cases, supporters, friends, and family members gathered in the hallway erupted in applause. The defendants left the courtroom in tears, sharing emotional hugs with their loved ones. One woman tearfully embraced another and exclaimed, “We did it.”

Investigators had alleged that in December 2020, the group met at the Michigan GOP headquarters and signed a document falsely claiming to be the state’s “duly elected and qualified electors.” President Joe Biden secured victory in Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes, a result verified by a GOP-led state Senate investigation in 2021.

Electors are part of the 538-member Electoral College that officially elects the president of the United States. In 48 states, electors vote for the candidate who won the popular vote. In Nebraska and Maine, elector votes are awarded based on congressional district and statewide results.

One man accused in the Michigan case had the charges against him dropped after he agreed to cooperate with the state attorney general’s office in October 2023. The other 15 defendants pleaded not guilty and have maintained that their actions were not illegal.

Judge Simmons took nearly a year to say whether there was sufficient evidence to bring the cases to trial following a series of lengthy preliminary hearings.

Prosecutors in Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona have also filed criminal charges related to the fake electors scheme. None of the cases have neared the trial stage and many have been bogged down by procedural and appellate delays.

In Nevada, the state attorney general revived a case against a group of allegedly fake electors last year, while a judge in Arizona ordered a similar case back to a grand jury in May. In Wisconsin last month, a judge declined to dismiss felony charges against three Trump allies connected to a plan to falsely cast electoral ballots for Trump even though Biden won the state in 2020.

The Georgia prosecution is essentially on hold while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Atlanta, who brought the charges against President Trump and others appeals her removal from the case. Technically, Trump is still a defendant in the case, but as the sitting president, it is highly unlikely that any prosecution against him could proceed while he’s in office.

The effort to secure fake electors was central to the federal indictment against Trump that was abandoned earlier this year shortly before Trump took office for his second term.