LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Clark County District Court judge Friday dismissed the case against six Republicans who signed fraudulent elector certificates after the 2020 election claiming President Donald Trump had won.
Judge Mary Kay Holthus agreed with defense attorneys for the six, saying that because the alleged crimes occurred in Carson City and Douglas counties, the cases should have been filed there.
"You have literally, in my opinion, crimes that occurred in another jurisdiction, that individuals may have some ties to Clark County and so it was charged here," Holthus said. "I can't see jurisdiction. I can't see it."
Attorney General Aaron Ford — who was present for the hearing — said his office would appeal the ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court.
"The judge got it wrong and we will be appealing immediately," he told reporters before leaving the courtroom.
Attorney Richard Wright, who represents Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, reviewed the alleged acts and pointed out that all occurred in Northern Nevada.
One connection to Las Vegas was the fact that the fake certificates were sent to the federal courthouse downtown, where they were forwarded to Reno unopened. Prosecutor Matthew Rashbrook tried to argue that point to Holthus, as well as the idea that preparation and planning for the fake-elector ceremony likely happened here, to no avail.
WATCH our previous reporting: Nevada's accused GOP fake electors attack indictment
Wright implied that political considerations motivated the attorney general's office to convene a grand jury in Clark County, which has a much higher Democratic population than either Carson City or Douglas County.
Republicans outnumber Democrats in Carson City by more than 5,000 active registered voters; in Douglas County, that number is nearly 14,000. In Clark County, by contrast, there are more than 110,000 more Democrats than Republicans.
"I think everybody in this courtroom knows why it's in Clark County as opposed to Douglas County or Carson City," Wright said. "As Bob Dylan famously said, 'you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.'"
The three-year statute of limitations on one of the charges — filing a false instrument — has lapsed, so that case could not be re-filed in Northern Nevada, and the only hope of keeping that prosecution alive is if the Supreme Court overturns Holthus on appeal.
But the second charge — known as "uttering a forged instrument-forgery" — carries a four-year statute of limitations and could be refiled at any point before Dec. 14.
Although the certificates were designed to look like actual Electoral College vote certifications, they were obviously counterfeit in at least two ways: first, they did not bear the governor's signature and second, they lacked the official state seal.
The real certificates — signed by the Democratic electors in a meeting overseen by then-Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske — were sent to the National Archives and the U.S. Senate, where they were opened and counted on Jan. 6 during a joint session of Congress interrupted for hours by a riotous insurrection.
But the fake certificates were also sent to those places. The National Archives set them aside and didn't file them with the genuine certificates. Copies sent to Cegavske's office were returned to sender.
Later, reporting showed that a plan cooked up by Trump advisers had Republicans in swing states create alternate slates of electors in an attempt to have those votes counted instead of the legitimate ones in the event election results were challenged. The plan failed, and the signers of fake elector certificates in several states now face prosecutions similar to the one here in Nevada.
Ford testified to the 2023 Legislature that there was no law directly on point, and asked lawmakers to criminalize signing fake Electoral College certificates. A bill was approved, but was vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo, who said the penalty was too harsh.
Later, Ford brought the prosecution under existing statutes.
