LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Former Las Vegas city councilwoman and Nye County judge Michele Fiore spoke out for the first time since her trial started on Wednesday. Her daughter's testimony will be stricken from the trial record.
This comes after a contentious chain of events during her trial this week.
On Wednesday, Fiore was back in court as part of a federal fraud trial. She's accused of using charitable donations and campaign funds for personal expenses, like rent, plastic surgery, vacations, and her daughter's wedding.
Fiore is facing six charges of wire fraud and one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Going into Wednesday's proceedings, there were questions about whether the testimony of Fiore's daughter, Sheena Siegel, would be allowed after she possibly perjured herself.
Siegel was called as a witness for the defense and spent several days testifying. On Tuesday, prosecutors were about five minutes into their cross-examination and were asking Siegel about checks that had been written from accounts belonging to Fiore's political action committee to Siegel.
Siegel was brought back into court on Wednesday for different lines of questioning about her mother's various organizations and her grand jury testimony, but pleaded the fifth.
Siegel appears to be emotional. Her voice is shaky and is wiping some tears off her face.@KTNV
— Jaewon Jung (@jaewonnews) October 2, 2024
That's when she said she could have written one of the checks herself. Prosecutor Alexander Gottfried asked Siegel if that was legal and she said no. Gottfried then asked if Siegel was admitting to a federal crime, which prompted an objection from the defense.
WATCH: 'Are you admitting to a federal crime?' Daughter's testimony adds new wrinkle to Michele Fiore trial
Dorsey explained the issue wasn't looked into further yesterday because "emotions were running high and there was an element of surprise."
Siegel took the stand, without the jury present, and prosecutors went over categories of questions to see if she would be able to answer any of them.
For example, could prosecutors ask her questions about transfers from Fiore's political action committee to Siegel's personal bank account, questions about Siegel preparing campaign finance reports for Fiore, and if she was involved with a company called Hamlet Events.
Siegel invoked her Fifth Amendment rights for every line of questioning.
When Dorsey asked Siegel's counsel why, he replied there were concerns that the government believes the immunity deal is null and void and that Siegel could incriminate herself, which could lead to future campaign finance violation, wire fraud, conspiracy, and perjury charges.
Federal prosecutors argued this strengthened their argument that Siegel's testimony should be stricken from the record.
Motion to strike Siegel's testimony from the record by jarah.wright on Scribd
Gottfried pointed out that Siegel talked about several of those topics with the defense but then invoked the Fifth Amendment when prosecutors wanted to discuss the same things.
"Her unexamined testimony cannot stand where she is refusing to answer questions about anything that would be relevant to this case due to privilege," Gottfried said at one point.
However, Fiore's attorney, Michael Sanft, disagreed and said his defense has now been impacted because of the "mess they made in this case."
Sanft also argued that the burden shouldn't be on the defense attorney and that it could be a strategic decision on some level to have the full testimony removed instead of doing a full cross-examination.
Dorsey ultimately agreed with the prosecution noting that without cross-examination, it prevents prosecutors from testing the truth of Siegel's direct testimony and equal opportunity to challenge her narrative about how the funds were used.
She noted that striking a witness's entire testimony is "an extreme sanction not to be lightly imposed" but she found no lesser remedy that would fix the issues at hand.
Fiore was then given time to consult with her attorney about whether or not she would testify.
Fiore asked the court if she could make a three-minute statement about her decision, before she made that decision.
Dorsey said no because she didn't want the proceeding to turn into "some type of grandstanding circus." However, she said she would allow Sanft to give a brief summary of Fiore's concerns.
After a short recess to meet with her lawyer, Fiore chose not to testify. Sanft also told the court they had reconsidered the opportunity to give a summary.
Sanft also discussed a Rule 29 motion, which included a request to dismiss five of the seven charges that Fiore is facing.
According to Sanft, the government does not have sufficient evidence to prove those counts without reasonable doubt. However, federal prosecutor Dahoud Askar argued multiple witnesses testified and provided evidence to support those charges, including Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Dorsey said she will consider the motion overnight.
Channel 13 caught up with Fiore and Sanft after court proceedings on Wednesday.
"You guys need to know the truth and you're not getting the truth," Fiore told us.
"What is the truth," we asked.
"As of right now, we still have not gotten this case to a jury and as a result, we are under expectations by the court to not disclose until that happens," Sanft explained.
Closing arguments, as well as Dorsey's ruling on the Rule 29 motion, are set for Thursday morning.
Local defense attorneys weigh in
Las Vegas defense attorneys tell Channel 13, a witness possibly incriminating themself on the stand is extremely rare in a federal case.
"I've had that come up a couple of times in state cases and once in a federal case, but it is highly out of the ordinary," said defense attorney Robert Draskovich.
Draskovich is most recently known for defending Robert Telles, the former Clark County public administrator convicting of murder Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German.
"Potentially that witness could be charged," said Draskovich, who said he has tried dozens of federal cases. "That, again, is very rare."
Malcolm LaVergne, another attorney based in Las Vegas, agrees with Draskovich.
"The federal government has a culture of not letting these types of crimes go, especially high profile cases" said LaVergne. "I believe her daughter is going to be facing federal charges at some point."
Channel 13 has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice on whether Siegel will face federal charges. We have not heard back yet.
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