LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Six Republican Nevada electors are scheduled to go on trial next summer after pleading not guilty to forgery charges stemming from the 2020 election.
In December 2020, after former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, a group of six Republicans signed paperwork signaling their support for President Donald Trump in a symbolic ceremony devoid of any legal merit. The group then mailed the certificates to Washington.
In 2023, a Clark County grand jury indicted the six — Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, Clark County party chairman Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward James Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice — on charges of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument, felonies that carry penalties of up to four or five years in prison.
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Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus later dismissed the case, citing an improper venue. The state appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court afterward. The attorney general’s office then refiled the case in Carson City. Earlier this month, a Carson City judge determined there was enough evidence to move forward on a forgery charge.
On Monday, all six pleaded not guilty, and a judge scheduled a trial for July, according to 8 News Now affiliate, KTVN.
The six Republican electors have 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. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled against the Trump campaign on Dec. 8, 2020, six days before the Dec. 14 ceremony. However, lawyers claim the U.S. Supreme Court had yet to weigh in, though the panel ultimately did not.
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Attorneys for the six Republicans have said there was no intent to commit a crime.
Nevada law requires the secretary of state to oversee the certification of the state’s electoral certificates. Then-Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, oversaw the official certification process on the same day as the Republican signing for Trump.
In the same election where Trump and Republicans cited widespread fraud, Republicans gained seats in the Legislature. Republicans did not cite election fraud after the 2022 election, where Lombardo won by about 15,000 votes, nor the 2024 election, where voters elected Trump to a second term.
Former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election in Nevada by about 33,000 votes. Trump won re-election last November by more than 46,000 votes.
