In a victory for supporters of former President Donald Trump, a case of so-called fake electors has been dismissed in Nevada.
Judge Mary Kay Holthus dismissed the case because, she said, Clark County was not the appropriate venue, The Nevada Independent reported.
“At a Friday morning hearing in Clark County District Court, Judge Mary Kay Holthus said she was unconvinced by state prosecutors’ arguments that Clark County was the appropriate county in which to hear the case. The electors’ attorneys had argued a more appropriate venue would be in Carson City, where the illegitimate signing ceremony took place, or in Douglas County, where the fake elector documents were originally mailed from,” the report said.
If you are wondering why prosecutors, who should have known better, brought the case to Clark Count, the answer may be that Clark County has 468,651 registered Democrats versus 357,762 registered Republicans, the Nevada Secretary of State records show.
Juxtapose that with Carson City, which has 14,927 registered Republicans to 9,805 registered Democrats, or Douglas County, where registered Republicans total 21,840 and registered Democrats total 7,942, and you may have the answer.
Prosecutors were far more likely to garner a Democrat-heavy jury that could have been more likely to convict the Republicans.
“You have literally, in my opinion, a crime that has occurred in another jurisdiction,” the judge said. “It’s so appropriately up north and so appropriately not here.”
Democrat Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford vowed to appeal the decision.
“The judge got it wrong, and we’ll be appealing immediately,” he said.
But the attorney for the defense bluntly declared that the case was dead.
“They’re done,” Clark County Republican party chairman Jesse Law’s attorney Margaret McLetchie said.
In December, the attorney general sounded confident in his case when he announced the charges.
“The six defendants, who were indicted by a grand jury in the Eighth Judicial District Court, falsely portrayed themselves as Nevada’s presidential electors in the aftermath of the 2020 election. The six individuals have been charged with Offering a False Instrument for Filing, a Category C felony, and Uttering a Forged Instrument, a Category D felony, for offering a false instrument titled “Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Nevada” to the President of the Senate; the Archivist of the United States; the Nevada Secretary of State; and the United States District Court for the District of Nevada,” the press release said.
“When the efforts to undermine faith in our democracy began after the 2020 election, I made it clear that I would do everything in my power to defend the institutions of our nation and our state,” the attorney general said. “We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged. Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”
“The six Nevadans who were charged are Michael McDonald, Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward James Hindle III, Shawn Meehan, and Eileen Rice,” the press release said.
McDonald’s attorney, Richard Wright, said to the judge that he believed convening the grand jury in Las Vegas was improper and said that the prosecutors failed to give evidence to the defense that could have exonerated those who were charged.
“Crimes are tried in the venue in which the offense was committed,” the attorney said. “Signing the document occurred in Carson City.”
But Deputy State Attorney General Matthew Rashbrook said that “no one county contains the entirety of these crimes.”
“Society is the victim of these crimes,” he said. “Voters who would have been disenfranchised by these acts … would have been victims of these crimes.”
Ultimately, the judge agreed with the defense attorneys.
