Your local PBS station powers PBS News and keeps it free and accessible for everyone in your community.
Jessica Hill, Associated Press Jessica Hill, Associated Press
Leave your feedback
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The yearslong case against six Nevada Republicans who were accused of submitting a bogus certificate that falsely declared Donald Trump the winner of the state’s 2020 presidential election has been dismissed, a judge ruled Thursday.
The dismissal marks the latest setback in swing states’ efforts to prosecute fake electors who tried to keep Trump in the White House after he lost to Joe Biden in 2020.
READ MORE: Michigan judge tosses case against 15 people accused of attempting to falsely certify Trump as 2020 winner
Three other fake elector cases in Arizona, Michigan and Georgia have been dismissed. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes recently dismissed her office’s criminal case but vowed to bring it back to a grand jury in hopes of securing another indictment. The dismissal was a legal maneuver aimed at getting around a deadline for starting new grand jury proceedings after Mayes lost an appeal earlier in June.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is also running for governor as a Democrat, brought charges relating to forgery and “offering a false instrument for filing or record” against the six Nevada Republicans, who pleaded not guilty.
His office plans to appeal the ruling.
The defendants included Michael McDonald, the chair of the Nevada Republican Party, and Jesse Law, the former chair of the Clark County Republican Party. Their attorneys declined to comment Thursday.
After the 2020 election, the six Republican electors gathered outside of the Nevada Legislature to sign a certificate giving the state’s six electoral votes to Trump, despite Biden winning the state by more than 30,000 votes. The ceremony was broadcast online, and the video footage was used as evidence in the case.
The case has revolved around the defendants’ intent behind submitting the certificate.
Prosecutors argue the defendants intended for their documents to be mistaken for actual electoral votes that then-Vice President Mike Pence would count on Jan. 6, 2021.
The defendants say submitting the certificate was an act of “political theater” designed to publicize their concerns about the election. They were preserving their rights to challenge the official election results and had no intent to deceive a government agency into accepting the GOP certificate as real, their attorneys argued.
Nevada Judge Mary Kay Holthus agreed.
She found there was a lack of evidence that showed the electors intended to deceive government officials, and she determined that the state failed to disclose exculpatory evidence to the grand jury.
“The fact that Defendants openly announced both their actions and their asserted purpose, rather than concealing their conduct or attempting to secretly induce governmental reliance, weighs against a reasonable inference that they acted with fraudulent intent,” Holthus wrote in her ruling.
Jurisdiction had also been an issue, but the case eventually landed in Clark County, which is home to Las Vegas and leans Democratic.
Courts have dismissed similar cases in Michigan and Georgia, and a special prosecutor dropped a federal case in late 2024 that charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Those cases ended after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. A fake electors case is ongoing in Wisconsin.
Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue.
Left: A gavel and a block is pictured on the judge’s bench in this illustration picture taken in the Sussex County Court of Chancery in Georgetown, Delaware, U.S., June 9, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
By Liz Landers, Kayan Taraporevala
By Kate Brumback, Associated Press
By Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press
By Scott Bauer, Associated Press
By Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press
By Jacques Billeaud, Associated Press
Jessica Hill, Associated Press Jessica Hill, Associated Press
Support Provided By: Learn more
Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.
© 1996 – 2026 NewsHour Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved.
PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Sections
About
Stay Connected
Subscribe to Here’s the Deal with Lisa Desjardins
Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.
Support for News Hour Provided By
About the Author
