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Simmons said she saw no intent to commit fraud in the defendants’ actions. Whether they were “right, wrong or indifferent,� they “seriously believed� there were problems with the election, the judge said.

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

Each member of the group, which included of the Republican Party in Michigan, faced eight charges of forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. The top felony charges carried a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.

Supporters, friends and family crowded in the hallway outside the courtroom cheered when the judge said the cases would be dismissed. Defendants leaving the courtroom cried and hugged friends and family. One woman wept as she hugged another and said, “We did it.�

said the group met at the Michigan GOP headquarters in December of 2020 and signed a document falsely stating they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified electors.� President Joe Biden won Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes, a result confirmed by a GOP-led state Senate in 2021.

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 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.

Prominent Michigan MAGA activist and former Michigan Republican Party Co-Chair Meshawn Maddock was one of the accused. Her attorney, Nicholas Somberg, told reporters after the hearing that the case brought by the attorney general's office was a waste of money and a “malicious prosecution.�

“There needs to be major consequences for the people who brought this," he said.

Nessel called the Simmons' ruling “disappointing� and a “very wrong decision� during a virtual news conference. She said the group members knew their actions did not follow proper election procedure and specifically sought to circumvent the rules.

“They knew they were not electors,� Nessel said of the group.

Simmons, who was appointed by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, took nearly a year to say whether there was sufficient evidence to bring the cases to trial following a series of . In her remarks Tuesday, Simmons said the case was not about who won the 2020 election, but about the intent of the people charged.

“This is not an election interference case,� she said.

Outside court, Republican state Rep. Matt Maddock, whose wife was charged, promised “retribution� against the attorney general.

“They’re going to pay for what they did to these people,� he told reporters.

Prosecutors in , , and 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 . 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 against Trump that was earlier this year shortly before Trump took office for his second term.

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Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.