Blake Preston-Nevada attorney general appeals to state high court in effort to revive fake electors case

2025-05-05 06:21:50source:Leonard Hohenbergcategory:Markets

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Blake Prestontop prosecutor in Nevada is asking the state Supreme Court to uphold the indictments of six Republicans charged with submitting a bogus certificate to Congress that declared Donald Trump the winner of the presidential battleground’s 2020 election.

Officials have said it was part of a larger scheme across seven battleground states to keep the former president in the White House after losing to Democrat Joe Biden. Criminal cases have also been brought in Michigan, Georgia and Arizona.

Meanwhile, the fate of Nevada’s so-called fake electors case hangs in the balance.

Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus issued a written order Friday night affirming her ruling from the bench last month that Las Vegas was the wrong venue for the case and therefore the charges must be dismissed.

A spokesperson 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 her 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 says.

RELATED COVERAGE Nevada election officials certify enough signatures for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear on ballotA man got third-degree burns walking on blazing hot sand dunes in Death Valley, rangers sayRural Nevada judge suspended with pay after indictment on federal fraud charges

The defendants are state GOP chairman Michael McDonald; Clark County GOP chairman Jesse Law; national party committee member Jim DeGraffenreid; national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan; Storey County clerk Jim Hindle; and Eileen Rice, a party member from the Lake Tahoe area.

They were indicted by a grand jury in Las Vegas last December, just before a three-year statute of limitations expired. Each was charged with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument — felonies carrying a penalty of up to four or five years in prison.

Monti Levy, one of the defense lawyers, said Saturday they “are confident that Judge Holthus made the correct decision and that her order granting the motion to dismiss will be upheld.”

The defense attorneys had argued that Ford improperly brought the case against their clients before a grand jury in Democratic-leaning Las Vegas instead of in a northern Nevada city, where the alleged crimes occurred.

Ford’s office, meanwhile, argued that “no one county contains the entirety of these crimes.”

It wasn’t clear Saturday from court records whether oral arguments had been scheduled before the Nevada Supreme Court. The court’s clerk also did not respond to an emailed message seeking 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.

More:Markets

Recommend

Angie Murimirwa: From hiding in the bathroom to Time's most influential people list

I don't mean to humble brag, but I am on a first name basis with one of the most influential people

Feds arrest ex-US Green Beret in connection to failed 2020 raid of Venezuela to remove Maduro

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A former U.S. Green Beret who in 2020 organized a failed crossborder raid

Captain in 2019 scuba boat fire ordered to pay about $32K to families of 3 of 34 people killed

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A scuba dive boat captain was ordered Wednesday to pay about $32,000 in restituti