LANSING – On Friday, the Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that upheld the criminal charges against Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. In December of 2024, the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the criminal charges against both defendants for alleged voter intimidation and affirmed a circuit court’s denial of their motion to quash. 

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

Attorney General Nessel filed charges in the 36th District Court in Detroit in October of 2020 against Burkman and Wohl for allegedly orchestrating a series of robocalls aimed at suppressing the vote of predominantly black voters in Detroit in the 2020 general election by promoting falsehoods that:   

1. voting by mail would place voters’ personal information in a public database that will be used by police departments to track down individuals with outstanding warrants;
2. voting by mail would place voters’ personal information in a public database that will be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts; and
3. the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were attempting to utilize vote by mail records to track individuals for mandatory vaccines. 

The robocall named Burkman and Wohl as responsible for the calls and claimed them to be the founders of a “civil rights organization” named “Project 1599.” It closed with a message urging the predominantly Black recipients to not be “finessed into giving your private information to the man. Stay safe and beware of vote by mail.” The Attorney General has called the robocall an egregious example of voter suppression.  

Jack Burkman, 57, and Jacob Wohl, 25, are each charged with:     

• One count of election law – bribing/intimidating voters, a five-year felony;
• One count of conspiracy to commit an election law violation, a five-year felony;
• One count of using a computer to commit the crime of election law – intimidating voters, a seven-year felony; and
• Using a computer to commit the crime of conspiracy, a seven-year felony. 

The People allege Burkman and Wohl, both current Virginia residents, attempted to discourage voters from participating in the general election by creating and funding a robocall targeting specific and multiple urban areas across the country, including Detroit. The calls were made in late August of 2020 and went out to nearly 12,000 residents with phone numbers registered to an address with a Detroit zip code.  

Following the formal charges from the Attorney General, both men were bound over for trial.  

Burkman and Wohl filed a motion to quash the charges in the circuit court. The circuit court denied this motion, and the defendants appealed to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals declined to hear their appeal. Burkman and Wohl then filed an application in the Michigan Supreme Court, which remanded the matter to the Court of Appeals and required it hear the appeal. The Court of Appeals heard the defendants’ arguments, ruling in a published opinion that the statute governed their conduct as alleged and that it was a constitutional application of the statute. Defendants Burkman and Wohl then appealed that ruling to the Michigan Supreme Court, which upheld the validity of the statute, ruled that it governed the conduct as alleged, and remanded the matter to the Court of Appeals to apply a limiting construction of the law to ensure that it did not ensnare constitutionally protected speech. On remand, the Court of Appeals ruled that the alleged actions here would not be constitutionally protected speech.