About
Six Republican residents of Nevada attempted to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election by submitting fake Electoral College documents to Congress as part of the Jan. 6, 2021 certification process. The group includes several leaders of the Nevada Republican Party and a former Trump campaign employee. Two of the fake electors were subpoenaed by the Department of Justice for their role in the scheme.
Following Georgia and Michigan, Nevada was the third of seven states involved to charge its fake electors with criminal offenses. In December 2023, all six had been indicted by a Nevada grand jury for fraudulently submitting documents to Congress claiming that Trump won the 2020 election. Each faced two felony charges: “offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument by submitting fraudulent documents to state and federal officials.”
However, in June 2024, a district court judge dismissed the case on the grounds that the attorney general had filed it in the wrong venue—Las Vegas instead of Reno or Carson City, where the defendants actually gathered to sign the phony documents. A pro-Trump nonprofit paid $100,000 in legal fees to help get the fake electors case dismissed.
During the 2023 legislative session, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford had urged state lawmakers to support SB133, “a bill that would have established felony criminal penalties for anyone who participated in ‘creating a false slate of presidential electors, serving in a false slate of presidential electors or conspiring to create or serve in a false slate of presidential electors.’” Although the legislation passed in the General Assembly, it was vetoed by recently elected Governor Joe Lombardo, a Trump loyalist and election denier.
According to the Nevada Current, the six fake electors gathered outside the Legislative Building in Carson City on Dec. 14, 2020, and mailed signed, notarized certificates to Congress and the National Archives purporting to be official Electoral College votes for Trump. The date coincided with the day the state’s actual electoral votes were cast for President Biden, and constituted “a coordinated move with slates of fake electors in other states and Trump’s presidential campaign.”
The Big Lie
- The following six fake electors from Nevada signed bogus documents claiming that Trump had won the 2020 election in their state:
- James DeGraffenreid: former vice chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, who was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice
- Durward James Hindle III: vice chair of the Nevada Republican Committee.
- Jesse Law: chairman of the Clark County Republican Party and a former Trump campaign staffer. As of December 2023, he plans to run for a seat in the state assembly.
- Michael J. McDonald: chair of the Nevada Republican Party, who was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice
- Shawn Meehan: a member of the board of the Douglas County Republican Party
- Eileen Rice: a member of the board of the Douglas County Republican Party