Nevada grand jury indicts six pro-Trump fake electors
By Kyung Lah and Zachary Cohen, CNN
(CNN) — A Nevada grand jury has indicted six individuals who acted as fake electors in a scheme intended to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election win, according to the state’s attorney general.
The indictments make Nevada the third state – joining Michigan and Georgia – to bring charges against those who served as fake pro-Trump electors after the 2020 election.
The six Nevadans charged are fake electors: Michael McDonald, Jesse Law, Jim DeGraffenreid, Durward James Hindle III, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice. They face felony charges of “offering a false instrument for filing” and “uttering a forged instrument.”
None of the fake electors have responded to requests for comment from CNN.
Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office said in a short statement that “we cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged,” adding: “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.”
As part of the effort to help then-President Donald Trump be reelected, six Republicans in Nevada signed false Electoral College votes in December 2020 for Trump, who lost the state to Biden, according to special counsel Jack Smith’s federal indictment, the House select committee that investigated January 6, 2021, and the Nevada attorney general’s office.
Nevada is among at least five states that have launched criminal investigations into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Two of those states – Michigan and Georgia – have already brought criminal charges against some of the people who signed onto the alternative slates of fake electors, and more charges could be brought soon.
Nevada’s case ramped up after prosecutors secured the cooperation of a key witness, Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who helped orchestrate the fake electors plot across multiple states. In late 2020, Chesebro wrote a series of memos spelling out what the pro-Trump electors should do in their respective states.
In one memo, Chesebro acknowledged that he was promoting a “controversial strategy” that even the Supreme Court with its conservative supermajority would “likely” reject.
This story has been updated with additional details.
The-CNN-Wire
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