On Friday, a Nevada judge dismissed an indictment against six Republicans accused of submitting false certificates to Congress declaring Donald Trump the winner of the state’s 2020 presidential election. This ruling potentially reduces the number of states with criminal charges against fake electors from four to three. The Nevada Attorney General, Aaron Ford, plans to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court, emphasizing that the judge got it wrong in dismissing the case. Defense attorneys of the defendants claimed that bringing the case before another grand jury in a different venue would violate the statute of limitations that expired last December.
The defendants, including prominent figures like the state GOP chairman Michael McDonald and national party committee member Jim DeGraffenreid, were accused of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument, which are felonies carrying a penalty of up to four or five years in prison. The defense attorneys argued that the case was improperly brought before a grand jury in Las Vegas, a Democratic-leaning city, instead of Carson City or Reno, more Republican cities where the alleged crimes occurred. They also claimed that prosecutors failed to present evidence that would have exonerated the defendants, emphasizing that the offenses took place in Carson City.
Following the dismissal of the indictment, there were calls for Storey County clerk Jim Hindle to resign from his elected position as an overseer of elections. Hindle’s attorney declined to comment on these calls. The state Republican party welcomed the court decision while noting Attorney General Ford’s intention to appeal. One of the defendants, Shawn Meehan, will not be named as a Nevada delegate to the 2024 Republican National Convention, despite facing criminal charges. Meehan’s defense attorney stated that he chose not to seek the position, having run unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for state attorney general in 2022.
The criminal cases in Nevada and other battleground states like Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona are part of a broader investigation into fake elector schemes that falsely certified Trump’s victory in the 2020 election. Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who cooperated with prosecutors in the Nevada case, had pleaded guilty in Georgia last October for his involvement in orchestrating the scheme. Chesebro provided the state GOP with instructions on how to submit false certificates, particularly highlighting Nevada’s unique challenges compared to other states. Despite attempts to overturn the election results, Nevada certified Biden as the winner and found no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state.
