Nevada Republican ‘fake electors’ cite First Amendment amid push to move case out of Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Attorneys for the six Nevada Republicans who submitted fake electoral certificates to re-elect then-President Donald Trump are renewing their push to have the case moved out of Clark County while saying the U.S. Supreme Court could have weighed in, though ultimately did not.

In December, a Clark County grand jury indicted the group on charges of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument, stemming from the submission of the documents in 2020. Both charges are felonies. Prosecutors charged Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, Clark County Republican Party Chairman Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward “James” Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice.

Last week, prosecutors filed phone records from McDonald and Law, claiming their activity before their Dec. 14, 2020, meeting and subsequent sending of electoral certificates was in the Las Vegas area.

In documents filed Tuesday, lawyers for the six fake electors claim Law was not in Nevada in the days before the event nor is there evidence McDonald was in Clark County in the certificates’ drafting phase.

The six electors signed the paperwork signaling their support for Trump in a symbolic ceremony devoid of any legal merit and coinciding with the official state-sanctioned tally on Dec. 14, 2020. The purpose of the documents was to force Congress to decide the presidential election, according to people whom the Jan. 6 committee interviewed. A legal advisor to the Trump campaign, Kenneth Chesebro, emailed DeGraffenreid about the plan, the committee found.

Grand jury transcripts reveal Chesebro, who was charged with partaking in similar schemes in other states, agreed to testify to the Clark County grand jury to avoid prosecution in Nevada.

In emails included in the court documents, DeGraffenreid emailed he had changed the state name on the certificates from “Arizona” to “Nevada” before sending them to someone else to print.

As the 8 News Now Investigators reported in December 2021, the certificate sent by Nevada Republicans and received by the National Archives looks much different than the official state-sealed one and reads, “We, the undersigned, being the duly elected and qualified electors for president and vice president of the United States of America from the State of Nevada, do hereby certify six electoral votes for Trump.”

The outside of the envelope accompanying the documents was stamped and verified by the U.S. Postal Service and was addressed and sent via certified mail to the National Archives from the rural town of Minden, Nevada. The USPS time-date stamps indicate the packet arrived in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 22, 2020.

Lawyers argue “the first time the evidence shows defendants engaged in any acts relating to the documents at issue” was in Carson City, documents said.

“Instead of trying to trick anyone with their certificate, the defendants were exercising their First Amendment rights not only to criticize and challenge Nevada’s election process but also to preserve their rights, also protected by the First Amendment, to petition the courts and seek other avenues to address their concerns about Nevada’s purported election irregularities,” Tuesday’s filing said.

In the days after and in filings since, the six Republican electors said they filed the certificates due to the then-ongoing legal battles from the Trump campaign. However, in mid-December 2020, no legal case remained open in Nevada. The Nevada Supreme Court ruled against the Trump campaign on Dec. 8, 2020, six days before the Dec. 14 ceremony. However, lawyers claim the U.S. Supreme Court had yet to weigh in, though the panel ultimately did not.

Nevada law requires the secretary of state to oversee the certification of the state’s electoral certificates. Then-Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, oversaw the official certification process on the same day as the Republican event.

“Nevada law does not have any mechanism or procedure to address a situation where an election result is still being challenged-that is what is problematic. The defendants were entitled to nonetheless try to comply with the certificate requirement and create and submit a provisional certificate,” lawyers said.

Biden won Nevada by more than 33,000 votes, or about 2.4%. Biden’s lead was greater in Clark County, where he won by nearly 10 percentage points. The result was reversed in Carson City, the state capital, where Trump bested Biden by nearly 12 points.

No widespread voter fraud was ever discovered in Nevada. The state supreme court denied the Trump campaign’s request to overturn the state’s election results and proclaim the then-president the winner. The campaign also never provided any court with evidence of fraud.

The Nevada GOP repeatedly denied requests from 8 News Now to review their evidence throughout the fall of 2020. At a news conference on Nov. 5, 2020, where surrogates from the Trump campaign announced a federal lawsuit, speakers told reporters to find the evidence for themselves. That lawsuit was later dropped. During the sole hearing in that case, a lawyer provided no evidence of fraud and did not verbally bring up any evidence to the federal judge.

Last year, Nevada Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo vetoed Senate Bill 133, which lawmakers approved during the 2023 Nevada Legislature that would have established penalties for the fake electors’ actions. Lombardo defended the sanctity of elections, but said the penalties in the bill were out of scale.

While testifying in favor of the bill before the Assembly Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford said no Nevada law allowed him to take possible action.

The Jan. 6 committee interviewed both McDonald and Republican elector Jim DeGraffenreid. Both men invoked their Fifth Amendment rights repeatedly — McDonald more than 200 times. Neither, nor a party spokesperson, has returned repeated requests for comment.

Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus was scheduled to hear a motion to dismiss on March 4.

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