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Analysis
Matt DePerno is a one-trick pony whose claim to fame is yammering about election fraud.
DePerno was a little-known Michigan attorney whose career high-water mark was representing a lawmaker involved in one of the biggest sex scandal’s in state history. The case saw him get thrown out of court and later get handed an $80,000 judgment against him and his client after they sued a newspaper for defamation.
Then in 2020 DePerno glommed onto the election fraud nonsense and embedded himself like a tick. His online fundraiser collected nearly $400,000 for the quixotic effort to prove voter fraud.
Now, DePerno is hoping to parlay the name recognition he earned among the cohort of weirdos and other types that effort attracted into the Michigan Attorney General’s office.
DePerno’s efforts to overturn the election allegedly included being at the center of a conspiracy to gain improper access to voting machines in several Michigan counties. Earlier this month, his opponent, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (D) requested a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate and possibly file criminal charges against DePerno and several others.
DePerno responded by hysterically likening Nessel to Saddam Hussein and claiming that the investigation is “graver than Pearl Harbor or 9/11.”
Yes, you read that right.
DePerno the candidate has branched out slightly from nonstop blather about voter fraud to rail against COVID-19 restrictions, critical race theory, antifa, and groomers. His online footprint is basically the soup du jour of right-wing talking points.
DePerno slinks around the internet on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Gab, Truth Social, Parler, and Gettr. There’s also a Telegram channel that appears to be his.
There you can catch him palling around with the likes of Mike Lindell, Steve Bannon, that GOP gubernatorial candidate who got arrested over the Capitol riot, and Glenn Beck.
Why it matters
DePerno slinked out of the muck of election fraud lies to become the likely Republican nominee for Attorney General of one of the nation’s largest swing states.
If he wins, he’ll be the state’s most powerful prosecutor and have the ability to launch investigations into crimes real and imagined.
Just imagine what someone like him would do with such power.
