LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada’s top prosecutor is asking the state Supreme Court to uphold charges against six Republicans accused of sending a false certificate to Congress that declared donald trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Officials said it was part of a larger scheme in seven swing states to keep the former president in the White House after losing to the Democrat. Joe Biden. Criminal proceedings were also initiated Michigan, Georgia It is Arizona.
Meanwhile, the fate of the so-called fake voter case in Nevada is in the balance.
Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus issued a written order Friday night affirming her court ruling last month that Las Vegas was the wrong location for the case and therefore the charges must be rejected.
A spokesman for Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, confirmed Saturday in a statement that the office formally filed its appeal shortly after the judge issued his written order.
“We remain confident in our case and look forward to bringing these individuals to justice and holding them accountable for their actions,” the statement reads.
The defendants are State Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald; Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law; party national committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid; Douglas County and National Committeeman Shawn Meehan; Storey County Clerk Jim Hindle; and Lake Tahoe area party member Eileen Rice.
They were indicted by a grand jury in Las Vegas last December, just before the three-year statute of limitations expired. Each was charged with offering a false instrument to file and issuing a forged instrument – crimes that carry a penalty of up to four or five years in prison.
Monti Levy, one of the defense attorneys, said Saturday that they “are confident that Judge Holthus made the correct decision and that her order granting the motion to dismiss will stand.”
Defense attorneys argued that Ford improperly presented the case against his clients before a grand jury in Democratic-leaning Las Vegas rather than in a northern Nevada city where the alleged crimes occurred.
Ford’s office, however, argued that “no county contains the entirety of these crimes.”
It was unclear Saturday from court records whether oral arguments were scheduled before the Nevada Supreme Court. The court clerk also did not respond to an emailed message requesting more information.
Trump lost to Biden by more than 30,000 votes in Nevada. An investigation by then-Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, found no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state.
