LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A state lawyer argued Wednesday that a mistakenly addressed envelope should allow them to continue prosecuting six Republicans who signed fake certificates falsely claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election.
But attorneys for the electors argued before the Nevada Supreme Court that because the alleged crimes happened in Northern Nevada, and the defendants were indicted in Clark County, the case should be dismissed.
WATCH | Nevada Supreme Court skeptical about venue in fake electors case. Could a mailing error determine if prosecution continues?
The high court's decision could end the case against the electors, although a second prosecution may still go forward.
It all began in 2020, after President Donald Trump lost the election to Joe Biden, but insisted the election had been stolen.
Across the United States, electors met in various states to sign Electoral College certificates falsely attesting that Trump had won their states, in a coordinated attempt to proffer slates of alternate electors that would allow Trump to hold on to the White House.
In Nevada, electors met in Carson City on Dec. 14, 2020, in front of the legislative building, to sign the documents. After a brief ceremony, the certificates were mailed from Douglas County to the secretary of state's office in Carson City, to the secretary of the U.S. Senate and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and to the office of the then-Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Nevada, Miranda Du.
But Du's copy of the certificates were mistakenly sent to the Las Vegas courthouse, rather than to her office in Reno. Court staffers later brought the documents to the Reno courthouse.
Meanwhile, the real certificates were approved in a proceeding with Nevada's Democratic electors that was overseen by then-Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, and sent to all those locations as well.
During the 2023 Legislature, Attorney General Aaron Ford testified in favor of a bill that would have made signing fake electoral certificates a crime. Ford said at that hearing that no Nevada law directly criminalized what the electors did.
The bill passed but was later vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Despite that, however, Ford sought a grand jury indictment in Clark County, charging the electors with two other crimes — filing a false instrument and uttering a forged document-forgery, both felonies. (Authorities in other states also sought to hold fake electors accountable.)
Critics of the indictments said Ford brought the case in Clark County because Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans here. (The Democratic lead is more than 88,000 voters currently. In Carson City and Douglas County, by contrast, Republicans outnumber Democrats.)
In addition, they said the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires crimes to be charged in the state and district where the crime was allegedly committed.
But Ford's office contended that several factors — including planning the Electoral College ceremony, emails between electors and the erroneous mailing of the certificates to Clark County — made Las Vegas a proper venue to bring the case.
In June, however, Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus disagreed, and dismissed the case, saying it should have been brought where the alleged crimes occurred, in Carson City or Douglas County.
WATCH | Fake elector case from 2020 presidential election dismissed in Clark County
Ford immediately declared he'd appeal, and on Wednesday, the court heard arguments, questioning lawyers about the details of where the crimes allegedly occurred.
Justices appeared skeptical of the state's arguments, made by Jeffrey Connor, chief deputy solicitor general for the state.
Chief Justice Douglas Herndon suggested it didn't matter where the documents were sent, but only where they were opened and filed.
"You have a building in Clark County where somebody doesn't open it, has no idea what it is, and that puts it in a mail that's going out to Judge Du's office in Washoe [County], somehow gives venue in Clark County in your mind?" Herndon asked Connor.
"That's the plain language of NRS 171.030, your honor," Connor replied. (That statute says when a crime is committed in part in one county and in part in another, or the acts or effects occur in two counties, venue can be in either county.)
Later, Herndon said the venue argument was complicated. "It seems like we're contorting ourselves trying to find a venue in Clark County on something that was very simple," he said. "It was mailed or conspired to be done here and received by Judge Du there."
Attorney Richard Wright, arguing for the electors, said the crime was complete after the certificates were signed in Carson City and mailed from Douglas County, regardless of where the certificates were sent.
And although the arguments Wednesday centered on venue, Wright added that his clients were only preserving their rights when they signed the fake certificates, not trying to defraud the government.
"All you had here was six individuals who were filing a document that was required by December 14 to enable them to continue to contest the election results if they wanted to," Wright said. "That was their intent."
If the Supreme Court upholds Holthus's ruling, the indictment of the electors in Clark County is dead. If they overturn the dismissal, however, a criminal case could move forward.
A decision is expected in the coming weeks.
In December, Ford's office filed uttering a forged instrument charges in Carson City in a separate criminal proceeding. (The statute of limitations had lapsed on the filing of a false instrument charge.) The Carson City case will move forward no matter what the Supreme Court decides in the case argued on Wednesday.
And a second fake elector bill was passed by the 2025 Legislature, but that measure was also vetoed by Lombardo, which means nearly five years after the 2020 election, Nevada law still lacks a specific prohibition on serving in a slate of fake electors.
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