Nevada ‘Fake Elector’ Case Originally Set To Be Tried Next Week, Is Punted Into Next Year

A case against six GOP officials posing as ‘fake electors’ after the 2020 election in Nevada is being moved to next year from next week.

AP, File
Presidents Biden and Trump. AP, File

A Nevada court on Monday has pushed back the trial date for six “fake electors” — who face felony charges for allegedly seeking to subvert the state’s 2020 vote in favor of President Trump — to next year, after the 2024 election. The case was originally set to be tried next week.

Six Nevada GOP officials were indicted in December for offering a false instrument and for filing and uttering a forged instrument relating to their efforts to certify, for the Electoral College, that Mr. Trump was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election in their state despite Mr. Trump losing there by more than 33,000 votes.

Mr. Trump has claimed that he was the legitimate winner of the state. Yet, analyses of the election results, including at least one commissioned by Mr. Trump’s campaign, have only reaffirmed President Biden’s win.

To that end, the six Republican Party officials held their own procedure at Carson City in December 2020, where they pledged their electoral votes for Mr. Trump and referred to themselves as “duly elected and qualified electors.”

“We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged,” Attorney General Aaron Ford of Nevada, who is a Democrat, said in a statement accompanying the indictment. “Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”

At court proceedings Monday, the alternative GOP electors attempted unsuccessfully to get the charges against them dropped. Judge Mary Kay Holthus of Clark County instead set a hearing date for April 22, where arguments about the move to dismiss charges will be heard.

Attorneys for the fake electors are expected to argue that the case should be tried at Carson City instead of Las Vegas, where the case was brought and where the Republican electors attempted to file the forged documents. They are also expected to argue that there is insufficient evidence to bring the case against them.

Judge Holthus also moved the trial, which was originally set for next week, to next year. She initially set the trial to begin on January 6, 2025, though the fake electors objected, and the trial was then set for January 13.

The fake elector case in Nevada was not the only case to see action on Monday. In Wisconsin, two agents who supported Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election in the state, Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis, settled a civil suit brought against them by state Democrats.

As part of the settlement, the two men turned over some 1,400 pages of documents, text messages, photos, and emails, as well as a video that provides insight into Mr. Trump’s and his campaign’s post-election efforts. The 10 fake electors from Wisconsin settled in December.

Separately, in Georgia, Chesebro pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents, for which he will be sentenced to probation, community service, and a modest fine.

There are similar cases percolating in other states as well. In Michigan, 16 Republican officials also face felony charges over related schemes to overturn the election results, and there are investigations under way in both New Mexico and Arizona.


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