AG Nessel says she has enough evidence to charge 16 fake Michigan GOP electors if DOJ doesn't take action

LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel wants federal authorities to investigate 16 Republicans who claimed they were the state's presidential electors.

However, if the Department of Justice fails to take action, she said she has enough evidence to file state charges. Nessel, who is a Democrat, alleges that those 16 Republicans were involved crimes, including election fraud and forgery by filing false documents with four agencies suggesting that they were the proper electoral college members from the state voting for Donald Trump.

MORE: Nessel requests criminal investigation into Republican who submitted fake electors

Nessel said she referred the case to the DOJ to investigate if there was a mutli-state conspiracy to influence the election results.

She said she would charge the fake electors "if it becomes clear to me that there was not going to be any accountability federally," adding, "I think it would be incumbent upon me to move forward on this. These are incredibly serious charges."

When asked if she thought the fake electors conspired to steal the election, she said she looks forward to what federal authorities say about the case.

"I think that the documents speak for themselves," she said. "If you are asking me if I think they violated the law, my answer is yes, I do."

The state Republicans party dismisses her allegations, saying, "This is nothing more than political prosecution of convenience... she is playing politics with people's lives and livelihoods for the sake of scoring political points."

"Nothing could be further from the truth," Nessel said.