LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The six so-called “fake electors” who submitted phony electoral certificates to re-elect then-President Donald Trump want their charges thrown out and their case moved out of Las Vegas.
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.
Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward “James” Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice all filed their petitions for writ of habeas corpus on Monday.
The filing is standard in criminal cases and asks a judge to review charges and evidence, which oftentimes involves addressing bail.
The six electors signed 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 same day as the Republican elector ceremony, then-Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, oversaw the state-sanctioned electoral ceremony where Nevada Democrats’ electors signed certificates, sending them to Washington. In presidential elections, voters actually vote for party electors and not a presidential candidate.
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.”
In the days after and in filings since, the six Republican electors said they filed the certificates due to the then-ongoing legal battles from the Trump campaign. However, in mid-December 2020, no legal case remained open in Nevada.
Last legislative session, Democratic Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said no state law allowed him to prosecute the electors. However, his office presented the case to a Clark County grand jury in late November.
In the filing Monday, the three electors cite that statement.
“Attorney General Ford publicly stated that Nevada law does not punish the conduct at issue in this case,” documents said. “Last legislative session, he testified in favor of a bill designed to make the conduct at issue illegal and create harsh punishments for it, plainly stating his view that existing law ‘did not directly address the conduct in question.’”
Lawyers for the three electors also said impaneling a Clark County grand jury was more favorable to the prosecutors’ outcomes, implying Nevada’s largest country leans toward Democrats’ favor. They also cite the ceremony’s location in northern Nevada, not Las Vegas. They also said prosecutors failed to prove the electors “knowingly” provided false information.
The Nevada GOP repeatedly denied requests from 8 News Now to review their evidence throughout the fall of 2020. At a news conference on Nov. 5, 2020, where surrogates from the Trump campaign announced a federal lawsuit, speakers told reporters to find the evidence for themselves. That lawsuit was later dropped. During the sole hearing in that case, a lawyer provided no evidence of fraud and did not verbally bring up any evidence to the federal judge.
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. Biden won Nevada by more than 33,000 votes, a result the court certified that November. Several Republicans, including Cegavske and then-Attorney General William Barr, said there was no evidence of any widespread fraud.
Representatives from the Nevada GOP have not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Judge Mary Kay Holthus was scheduled to rule on the filing on Feb. 14. A jury trial was scheduled for March.
