# Nevada prosecution of fake electors

State of Nevada v. Michael J. McDonald, et al. is a state criminal prosecution of participants in the Trump fake electors plot in Nevada. The six defendants were each indicted on two felony forgery charges related to documents that falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the state's electoral votes in the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Nevada. Among the accused are Michael J. McDonald, the chair of the Nevada Republican Party, and Clark County Republican chairman Jesse Law.
On December 5, 2023, a grand jury issued the indictment in Clark County. All six defendants pleaded not guilty. On June 21, 2024, a judge dismissed the case on the grounds of improper venue, with prosecutors appealing to the Supreme Court of Nevada. Prosecutors refiled the charges in Carson City in December 2024 to resolve the venue issue.

## Background

Democratic nominee Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, and carried the state of Nevada, defeating Republican nominee Donald Trump in the popular vote by 33,596 votes, and gaining all of the state's six electoral votes. Trump and his allies, however, refused to accept the election results and launched an ultimately unsuccessful campaign to remain in power via subverting the election results.
In 2022, during the investigation of the U.S. House select committee on the January 6 attack, Nevada GOP chair Michael J. McDonald and Nevada GOP secretary James DeGraffenreid were both subpoenaed on January 28 and deposed on February 24.
In May 2023, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford testified that the fake electors would likely not be charged as he did not believe they had violated any specific law. However, in November 2023, it was reported that Ford was actively investigating individuals who had acted as fake electors.

## Defendants

The defendants are:
* Michael J. McDonald, Nevada Republican Party chairman
* James DeGraffenreid, Nevada Republican national committeeman
* Jesse Law, Clark County Republican Party chairman
* James Hindle III, Storey County clerk
* Shawn Meehan, Nevada Republican who acted as Chairman of the Resolutions
* Eileen Rice, Nevada Republican elector

## Clark County proceedings
### Indictment and arraignment

On December 5, 2023, a Nevada grand jury in the District Court for Clark County issued an indictment charging six Nevada Republicans. The indictment stems from the sending of a document falsely ascertaining that Trump had won the state. Each of the six defendants was charged with two felony counts:
* Offering false instrument for file or record: Defendants "knowingly procured" and offered a false instrument to be "filed, registered, or recorded in a public office"
* Uttering forged instruments: Defendants, with intent to "defraud, uttered, offered, and disposed", falsely put off an instrument as true
Nevada was the third state to bring charges in the fake elector scheme, after Georgia and Michigan. Arizona later became the fourth state to bring charges. If convicted, they faced between one and five years in prison.
The six defendants were arraigned on December 16, 2023; all pleaded not guilty. Judge Mary Kay Holthus set the trial for March 11, 2024. This was later moved to January 13, 2025.

### Dismissal and appeal

On June 21, 2024, the judge presiding over the case dismissed it on the basis that Clark County was the wrong venue to file the case as no elements of the alleged crime had occurred there; the casting of votes had occurred in Carson City and the documents were mailed from Douglas County.
The Nevada attorney general filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of Nevada on July 26.

## Carson City proceedings

On December 12, 2024, prosecutors re-filed the uttering forged instruments charges in Carson City. Because the statute of limitations for the filing false instruments charges had expired in December 2023, state prosecutors were not able to initiate a new case on those charges, although the forgery charges have a statute of limitations that is one year longer.