Las Vegas judge schedules Nevada ‘fake electors’ trial

David Charns
·2 min read
4

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — During a brief hearing Monday, a Las Vegas judge scheduled the trial for the six people who submitted phony electoral certificates after the 2020 election for January 2025.

Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus scheduled arguments for the defendants’ motions to dismiss for April 22. Should their attempt fail, a trial could start on Jan. 13, 2025.

In December, a Clark County grand jury indicted the group on charges of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument, stemming from the submission of the documents in 2020. Both charges are felonies. Prosecutors charged Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward “James” Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice.

The six electors signed the paperwork signaling their support for Trump in a symbolic ceremony devoid of any legal merit and coinciding with the official state-sanctioned tally on Dec. 14, 2020. The purpose of the documents was to force Congress to decide the presidential election, according to people whom the Jan. 6 committee interviewed. A legal advisor to the Trump campaign, Kenneth Chesebro, emailed DeGraffenreid about the plan, the committee found.

As the 8 News Now Investigators reported in December 2021, the certificate sent by Nevada Republicans and received by the National Archives looks much different than the official state-sealed one and reads, “We, the undersigned, being the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America from the State of Nevada, do hereby certify six electoral votes for Trump.”

Lawyers for the six argue the case should be tried, if it gets that far, in Carson City, not Las Vegas.

<em>A tweet from the Nevada GOP with a copy of the fake certificate sent to Washington. (Twitter/KLAS)</em>
A tweet from the Nevada GOP with a copy of the fake certificate sent to Washington. (Twitter/KLAS)

Biden won Nevada by more than 33,000 votes, or about 2.4%. Biden’s lead was greater in Clark County, where he won by nearly 10 percentage points. The result was reversed in Carson City, the state capital, where Trump bested Biden by nearly 12 points.

No widespread voter fraud was ever discovered in Nevada. The state supreme court denied the Trump campaign’s request to overturn the state’s election results and proclaim the then-president the winner. The campaign also never provided any court with evidence of fraud.

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