A Michigan state representative who has repeatedly promoted former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election introduced a bill on Tuesday that would require “fact checkers” to register with the state.
State Rep. Matt Maddock, a Republican, wrote in a Facebook post last week that his proposed legislation “will put Fact Checkers on notice.”
“Don’t be wrong, don’t be sloppy, and you better be right,” Maddock wrote.
The bill, called the Fact Checker Registration Act, would require “certain fact checkers” to register with Michigan’s secretary of state and insure themselves with $1 million fidelity bonds.
If the bill were enacted into law, a person would be able to sue a “fact checker” for “any wrongful conduct that is a violation” of Michigan state laws. A person who violated the act would be subject to a $1,000 fine per day for each day the violation continued, according to the bill.
Under Maddock’s proposal, a “fact checker” is defined as someone who is paid by a national or international fact-checking organization, is a member of the International Fact Check Network, publishes content in Michigan and presents themselves to the public as a fact-checker. (The text of the bill appears to incorrectly refer to the International Fact-Checking Network, a Poynter Institute initiative that connects fact-checkers across the world, as the “International Fact Check Network.”)
Maddock did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Democrats criticized the bill, which has garnered at least eight co-sponsors so far. Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D) said the proposal runs counter to protections established by the country’s founders, which guarantee the press can operate without government intrusion.
“This is an affront to the First Amendment,” Moss told The Detroit News.
Maddock and his wife, Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock, have repeatedly faced scrutiny for the misinformation they’ve peddled related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 election. They led the Michigan GOP’s charge to overturn President Joe Biden’s win, with Meshawn Maddock claiming to have organized nearly 20 buses of Trump supporters to attend the then-president’s Jan. 6 rally in Washington.
The Maddocks claimed they weren’t able to get into the area where Trump was speaking that day, but Meshawn Maddock’s social media posts appear to contradict that claim.
“The most incredible crowd and sea of people I’ve ever walked with <3,” Meshawn Maddock wrote in a quote-tweet of a video showing Trump supporters marching to the Capitol.
In mid-January, Michigan Democrats called for the censure, investigation and expulsion of Matt Maddock for his “continued attempts at undermining democracy by fomenting election conspiracy theories and assisting with the heinous attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
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