A Nevada judge on Friday threw out the state’s case against the six Republicans who claimed to be presidential electors and tried to declare Donald J. Trump the winner of the 2020 election. The judge, Mary Kay Holthus, said that state prosecutors had chosen the wrong venue to file the case.
John Sadler, a spokesman for Attorney General Aaron D. Ford, said, “We disagree with the judge’s decision and will be appealing immediately.” He declined to comment further.
The defendants in the case included top leaders of the state’s Republican Party, and they were charged with forging and submitting fraudulent documents in a fake elector scheme to overturn President Biden’s victory in 2020. Among those charged was the chairman of the state party, Michael J. McDonald.
A lawyer for Mr. McDonald, Richard A. Wright, expressed vindication at the ruling on Friday, saying the case was “obviously brought in the wrong location.”
The ruling marked another legal setback for the criminal cases against Mr. Trump, his associates and state-level allies over the 2020 election. A similar case in Georgia has been indefinitely delayed amid an investigation into a relationship between the Fulton County district attorney and a prosecutor she hired to handle the case. And a federal case in Washington has been stalled as the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether Mr. Trump is immune from prosecution.
Judge Holthus had previously expressed concern about the venue. Earlier this year, in her Las Vegas courtroom, she asked prosecutors to submit a brief explaining the illegal acts that they claim took place in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
Filings from the defendants argue that the Trump electors met in Carson City, the state capital, which is in a different county, and they contend that the state should have filed its case there.
“What exactly occurred here to give us jurisdiction?” the judge said during the hearing, adding, “I mean, let’s face it, the majority of this happened elsewhere, the way I read it.”
According to the minutes of the hearing on Friday, the judge “noted everything took place up north,” and said another jurisdiction “would be the appropriate one.”
George Kelesis, a lawyer for one of the defendants, Jim DeGraffenreid, a national Republican Party committee member, said the judge “ruled correctly with the law and the facts.”
“You look at what happened, there’s no nexus to Clark County, no matter how you try to twist it or say it, it clearly was all in Carson City,” he said.
No matter where the charges are brought, he said, his client would plead not guilty. “I don’t think it changes the facts, their intent and what they did,” Mr. Kelesis said.
The other defendants include Jim Hindle, the state Republican Party’s vice chairman; Jesse Law, the chairman of the Republican Party in Clark County; and Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice, both affiliated with the Republican Party in Douglas County.
Monti Jordana Levy, a lawyer for Ms. Rice, said prosecutors could have brought the case in three other counties in Nevada, but said she believed they had chosen Clark County because of its heavily Democratic population.
“Forum shopping? Absolutely,” she said.
Nevada is one of five states where criminal charges have been brought related to the Trump campaign’s plan to deploy fake electors during the 2020 election. None of the cases are expected to be tried before the 2024 election.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Source Agencies
