MESQUITE, Nev. — Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford vowed to appeal a Friday ruling that tossed a criminal case against state Republicans accused of forging documents bearing the names of “invalid electors” after the 2020 presidential election.
It’s the first time a “false electors” case has been dismissed.
Similar criminal cases in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan continue.
“We disagree with the judge’s decision and will be appealing immediately,” Ford’s communications director, John Sadler, said via email.
Ford, a Democrat in his second term, indicted six GOP officials in December, just before a three-year statute of limitations expired. If the state’s appeal fails, charges cannot be refiled.
The case was filed in Clark County, which has a “more Democratic” base of registered voters from which jurors would be drawn, The Nevada Independent noted.
But Judge Mary Kay Holthus of Clark County District Court accepted defense arguments that either Carson City, the state capitol, or Douglas County, where the documents were mailed, are the appropriate venues for any trial.
“You have literally, in my opinion, a crime that has occurred in another jurisdiction,” Holthus said.
“It’s so appropriately up north and so appropriately not here.”
Attorney Margaret McLetchie, who represented one of the six defendants, told the Associated Press the state’s case is “done,” suggesting the appeal would be unsuccessful.
State GOP chair Michael McDonald; national committeeman James W. DeGraffenreid III; Clark County Republican Party Chair Jesse Law; D. James Hindle III, state party vice chair; Douglas County and national committee member Shawn Meehan; and party member Eileen Rice had been charged with felonies for “offering [a] false instrument” and “uttering” forged instruments, sometime between Dec. 8 and Dec. 22, 2020, certifying them as electors favoring then-President Donald Trump.
They could have faced up to five years in prison; the planned January trial has been canceled.
A copy of the Holthus ruling was not immediately available, a spokeswoman said.
