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.
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.”
Other defendants included Jim Hindle, the state Republican Party’s vice chairman; Jim DeGraffenreid, a national committeeman; 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.
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.
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