Nevada judge dismisses 2020 fake electors forgery case

A Clark County judge has dismissed criminal charges against six Nevada Republicans accused of submitting an alternate elector certificate after the 2020 presidential election, ruling that prosecutors failed to show evidence of fraudulent intent.

Judge Mary Kay Holthus issued the decision Thursday, concluding that the available evidence did not support a reasonable inference that the defendants acted to deceive anyone into accepting the document as official. The six individuals, including Nevada Republican Party chair Michael McDonald and former Clark County Republican chair Jesse Law, had signed paperwork declaring Donald Trump the winner of the state's electoral votes. They did so openly at a public gathering outside the state legislature in December 2020.

Holthus noted in her ruling that the defendants made no effort to conceal their actions or to induce government officials to treat the certificate as binding. She observed that the certificate itself held no legal force under state or federal rules and could not have been recorded as valid. The absence of secrecy or attempts at covert reliance weighed against any finding of intent to defraud, the judge wrote. Prosecutors also did not present exculpatory material that had been identified by the defense.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford brought the charges in late 2023, alleging forgery and the filing of a false instrument. Ford, a Democrat who is running for governor, has stated that his office will appeal the dismissal. The case had already survived an earlier venue challenge that reached the Nevada Supreme Court.

The ruling follows similar outcomes in other states where prosecutors pursued cases against alternate electors. Charges in Arizona, Michigan and Georgia have been dropped or dismissed in recent months. Arizona's attorney general has indicated plans to seek a new indictment. These prosecutions arose from efforts by Republican supporters to submit alternate slates of electors in states that Joe Biden carried, with the goal of preserving options during the Electoral College process and subsequent congressional certification.

Court records show the Nevada defendants acted in coordination with other states but did not claim their certificate superseded the official one certified by state authorities. They publicly described their submission as a contingency measure tied to ongoing legal challenges to the election results. No evidence emerged during the proceedings that any state official relied on the document or that it altered official records.

The dismissals highlight the narrow legal standards required for forgery and false-filing offenses. Prosecutors must demonstrate specific intent to defraud rather than political disagreement over election outcomes. Judges in multiple jurisdictions have found that public, announced actions by political actors fall short of that threshold when no deception or material harm is shown.

Ford's office has maintained that the conduct warranted charges regardless of the public nature of the signing. The appeal will test whether higher courts view the evidentiary record differently. Meanwhile, the pattern of dismissals across swing states continues to constrain the scope of litigation stemming from the 2020 alternate-elector efforts.