A Nevada grand jury has indicted six allies of former President Donald Trump, including the chair of the state’s Republican Party, who signed paperwork to allocate electoral votes for Trump after the 2020 presidential election—despite Joe Biden being the actual victor.
Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, made the announcement on Wednesday after launching an investigation last month, naming state party chair Michael McDonald, national committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, Clark County Republican Party chair Jesse Law, state party vice chair Jim Hindle III, Shawn Meehan, and Eileen Rice as the defendants.
All six were handed two felony charges each: submitting fraudulent documents to state and federal officials and offering a false instrument for filing. According to The Washington Post, the charges carry a maximum sentence of four and five years in prison, respectively.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ford issued a statement Wednesday, saying, “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 attorney general was set to hold a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, but he delayed it due to a mass shooting incident on University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ campus.
These indictments make Nevada the third state, along with Michigan and Georgia, to issue criminal charges against “fake electors” who allegedly attempted to overturn their states’ 2020 election results.
CNN reported that the Georgia case quickly progressed after lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who helped come up with the “fake electors” scheme, pleaded guilty and agreed to act as a witness.
Trump allies organized false slates of electors in a total of seven states that Biden had won, with investigations ongoing in Arizona and New Mexico.
But according to The Post, the Nevada indictments are different from Georgia, where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis charged several lawyers who allegedly planned the conspiracy—as well as Trump, who she charged for leading the plot.
