Trump campaigns in Michigan amid new claims about bid to overturn 2020 election

KOCHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is campaigning in Michigan Thursday, a day after a court filing from prosecutors laid out new details of an alleged criminal scheme by the former president to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

Trump is expected to speak at about 3 p.m. on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw County. The event occurs 33 days before the Nov. 5 election, in which Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris are competing for votes, and marks Trump's 11th visit to Michigan of 2024.

On Wednesday, a 165-page motion from special counsel Jack Smith, who's pursuing criminal charges against Trump, was unsealed in federal court and argued Trump's past position as president didn't make him immune from prosecution.

Michigan was one of six states about which Smith detailed, in their own individual sections of the court filing, Trump's alleged attempt "to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted."

A few thousand people were inside the Ryder Center for Health and Physical Education at Saginaw Valley State University to hear from Trump Thursday. Among them was Jeff Kordel, a 62-year-old retired union worker from Marlette in Michigan's Thumb region. Asked about the new information from prosecutors about the 2020 election, Kordel questioned how many times similar accusations could be released against Trump.

“I’m to the point that I don’t care about it," said Kordel, who labeled Trump's first term in office "the golden days."

Kordel wore a T-shirt that said, "I was going to be a Democrat for Halloween but my head wouldn't fit up my ass."

In 2023, Smith indicted Trump on four criminal charges that focused on his alleged efforts to subvert the results of the November 2020 election.

Democrat Joe Biden won Michigan in 2020 by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points, 51%-48% over Trump. But the Republican nominee claimed, without providing evidence to back up his accusations, that widespread fraud influenced the outcome.

Members of Trump's campaign attempted to get the Republican leaders of the Michigan Legislature to overturn the result — although they refused — according to Smith's new motion. And the Trump campaign also organized a false slate of Republican electoral votes to submit to Congress.

"The throughline of these efforts was deceit: the defendant’s and co-conspirators’ knowingly false claims of election fraud," Smith's motion said.

Smith's new motion also said a campaign employee of Trump encouraged a colleague at the crowded convention center where Detroit's absentee ballots were being counted in November 2020 to "make them riot."

Trump lashed out at Smith Wednesday on social media.

"Democrats are weaponizing the Justice Department against me because they know I am winning, and they are desperate to prop up their failing Candidate, Kamala Harris," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Michigan is expected to be one of seven battleground states that decide whether Trump or Harris holds the White House for the next four years.

Harris, a former senator from California, will hold a campaign rally in Flint on Friday.

Shelby Shorkey, a 32-year-old from Bay City, said she plans to vote for Trump this fall, citing the low interest rate, she said, was available when she bought her home in 2019.

"He doesn’t sugarcoat nothing,” Shorkey said. “He tells you how it is. He wants what’s best for us.”

Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, was in Michigan for two stops on Wednesday — one in Marne and one in Auburn Hills. Trump will be back in the state on Oct. 10 to speak to members of the Detroit Economic Club. Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra touted the GOP candidates' focus on Michigan during a speech at Trump's rally Thursday.

"They're asking for Michigan votes every day because they know when they win Michigan, when we win Michigan together, Donald Trump is the next president of the United States," Hoekstra told the crowd.

However, ahead of Trump’s visit Thursday, a trio of Republicans launched a group called Michigan Republicans For Harris, including former U.S. Rep. Dave Trott of Birmingham, an attorney who represented Michigan in the U.S. House from 2015-19 before retiring.

They contended that Trump only acts to further his own interests and represents a threat to U.S. democracy who doesn’t respect the peaceful transfer of power. Trott said Michigan residents haven’t forgotten that the former president “cozied up” to dictators, caused a manufacturing recession in the state and maintains the “Big Lie” that he won the 2020 election.

“My fellow Republicans, I have plenty of disagreements with Democrats, but Trump's abuse of power and his disrespect of our Constitution and his radical economic plans go way beyond any policy difference. A second term would be a disaster for our country, and that's why so many Republicans have turned against him. It's the reason why a quarter of the Republican primary voters in Michigan chose Nikki Haley,” Trott said.

The other Michigan Republicans in the pro-Harris group were longtime GOP communications strategist Bill Nowling and lobbyist Jim Murray, a former president of AT&T Michigan and longtime Republican aide in the state Legislature.