Charles Krupa / AP
Aaron Ford, Attorney General of Nevada, answers a question during an interview at the State Attorneys General Association meetings, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Boston.
Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023 | 2:58 p.m.
Six Nevada Republicans who represented themselves as “alternative” electors for former President Donald Trump after his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden have been indicted on criminal charges, state Attorney General Aaron Ford’s office announced today.
The six individuals are Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald; James DeGraffenreid, a Republican national committeeman and a district-level delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention; Durward James Hindle III, vice chair of the Nevada Republican Committee; Jesse Law, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party; Shawn Meehan, founder of Guard the Constitution Project; and Eileen Rice, a delegate at the Nevada Republican Party.
They were indicted by a Clark County grand jury on charges of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument, category C and D felonies, respectively, according to court documents.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Online court records did not show a date for an initial appearance, nor did they list attorney information for any of the defendants. Meehan declined comment, and all others did not respond to requests for comment.
“When the efforts to undermine faith in our democracy began after the 2020 election, I made it clear that I would do everything in my power to defend the institutions of our nation and our state,” Ford, a Democrat, said in a statement.
“We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged. Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we enter into litigation, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done,” Ford said.
A news conference by Ford’s office to further discuss details of the indictments is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday at the Grant Sawyer State Office Building near downtown Las Vegas.
Politico reported last month that Ford was investigating the group of Republicans who attempted to derail Biden’s electoral victory.
Led by McDonald, about a dozen Republicans met on Dec. 14, 2020, in Carson City and conducted a fake ceremony to certify electoral votes for Trump.
The Nevada Republican Party sent the document — titled Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Nevada — to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., with McDonald’s name listed on the return address.
Republicans in a handful of other states went through a similar process.
The meeting of fake electors, here and in the other five contested states, had no legal standing.
Nevada’s real electors had already certified the state’s election the same day in a remote ceremony, awarding all six of Nevada’s electoral votes to Biden.
Ford told the Nevada Legislature in May that his office spent months investigating the scheme, but he was unable to bring charges because no state law existed to make such an exercise illegal.
His testimony was part of a presentation on Senate Bill 133, which sought to establish criminal penalties for anyone taking part in “creating a false slate of electors, serving in a false slate of presidential electors or conspiring to create or serve in a false slate of presidential electors.”
The bill cleared the Democrat-controlled Legislature but was vetoed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
In Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, in July announced 16 fake electors would face eight criminal charges, including forgery and conspiracy to commit election forgery. The charges come with a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
Electors in Georgia are also facing charges. An investigation is ongoing in Arizona.
