A Clark County judge has dismissed charges against six Nevada Republican alternate electors for President Trump in 2020. According to The Nevada Independent, the judge ruled that Clark County was not the appropriate jurisdiction for the trial.
At the Clark County District Court hearing, Judge Mary Kay Holthus sided with the defense, which argued that the case should be tried either in Carson City, where the signing ceremony occurred, or in Douglas County, from where the disputed electoral documents were mailed.
The decision was significant given that a jury in the more Democrat-leaning Clark County might not have been as sympathetic to the Republican defendants. Judge Holthus explained, “You have literally, in my opinion, a crime that has occurred in another jurisdiction,” saying that the issue belongs “so appropriately up north and so appropriately not here.”
Nevada 6 electors case DISMISSED! Congratulations to @Chattah4Nevada!! pic.twitter.com/zgNQA5AqqV
— Grace Chong 🇺🇸 (@gc22gc) June 21, 2024
The Daily Indy reported:
At a Friday morning hearing in Clark County District Court, Judge Mary Kay Holthus said she was unconvinced by state prosecutors’ arguments that Clark County was the appropriate county to hear the case. The electors’ attorneys had argued a more appropriate venue would be in Carson City, where the false signing ceremony took place, or in Douglas County, where the fake elector documents were originally mailed from.
Clark County is more Democratic, meaning a jury could be less favorable to the Republican defendants.
“You have literally, in my opinion, a crime that has occurred in another jurisdiction,” Holthus said. “It’s so appropriately up north and so appropriately not here.”
Immediately after the ruling, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said the “judge got it wrong” and that his office will appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Following the ruling, Nevada’s radical Attorney General Aaron Ford said the judge “got it wrong!” and warned, “We’ll be appealing immediately!”
But according to the Seattle Times, it’s too late. Defense attorneys bluntly declared the case dead, arguing that bringing it to another grand jury in another venue, such as Carson City, would violate the three-year statute of limitations on filing charges, which expired in December.
“They’re done,” said Margaret McLetchie, attorney for Clark County Republican Party chairman Jesse Law, one of the defendants.
The judge canceled the trial, which had been scheduled for January, involving defendants that included the Nevada GOP chairman and prominent party leaders from the Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe areas. Each was charged with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument, felonies carrying penalties of up to four or five years in prison.
