Michigan Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeal In Robocall Election Disinformation Case

Michigan Advance

June 30, 2025

The Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal to a lower court’s decision which upheld criminal charges against Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, two far-right operatives who are accused of orchestrating a robocall election misinformation campaign in multiple states ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Investigators who’ve looked into the robocalls across Michigan, Ohio and New York found that Burkman and Wohl were responsible for about 85,000 robocalls before the 2020 election, which attempted to discourage voters of color from participating.

In Michigan, Burkman and Wohl each face four felony charges for voter intimidation and other violations of state election law.

Michigan’s Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel filed charges against Burkman and Wohl in 2020, with her office reporting the pair made thousands of calls to communities of color, including 12,000 calls to residents with a 313 area code, the area code for Detroit, a predominantly Black city.

According to Nessel’s office, the calls spread false and intimidating information to voters, including that voting by mail could lead to police departments using their information to find people with outstanding warrants or allow credit card companies to collect outstanding debts.

It’s been almost five years since Nessel filed criminal charges against Burkman and Wohl and in a news release Monday, she said she’s ready for the case to proceed and the state’s highest court’s decision on Friday to not hear the pair’s appeal will help the case reach an end.

“I am pleased that the Michigan Supreme Court refused to entertain further delay tactics by denying to hear this appeal,” Nessel said in the news release. “Voter intimidation is a direct attack on the fundamental right to vote, and I look forward to finally bringing this matter to trial.”

In New York, Burkman and Wohl reached a settlement with the state’s attorney general’s office in 2024 to pay up to $1.25 million targeting thousands of Black voters in New York during the 2020 election.

In Ohio, Burkman and Wohl were ordered by a court in 2022 to spend 500 hours registering people to vote after prosecutors said the men organized more than 3,000 robocalls to Cleveland-area residents, according to The Associated Press.

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