LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — President Donald Trump on Sunday issued pardons to dozens of people involved in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, including six people in Nevada who signed fake Electoral College certificates.
The pardon was posted on Sunday evening by U.S. Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin.
Important pardon of Alternate Electors of 2020!! pic.twitter.com/iuDGv9fqyy
— Eagle Ed Martin (@EagleEdMartin) November 10, 2025
"This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election and continues the process of national reconciliation," the pardon reads. The document adds:
"Acting pursuant to the grant of authority under Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution of the United States, I Donald J. Trump, do hereby grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all United States citizens for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of Presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any State or State official, in connection with the 2020 President Election, as well as for any conduct relating to their efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 Presidential Election."
The names of all six Republicans who signed Nevada's fake electoral college certificates — Michael McDonald, Jim DeGraffenreid, James Hindle, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice — appear on the list of pardoned individuals.
But Article 2, Section 2, clause 3 of the Constitution grants presidents the power "...grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."
Since the Nevada electors were charged under state law (for filing a false instrument and uttering a forged document-forgery), the presidential pardon cannot spare them from state-level prosecution and potential punishment.
The case against the six electors has wound its way through courts since the Republican electors met in Carson City on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign fake certificates, which were mailed to the National Archives, the secretary of the U.S. Senate, the Nevada secretary of state's office and the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Nevada.
Four years later, the electors were charged by a grand jury in Clark County. But in June, District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus dismissed the indictment, ruling the case should have been brought in Carson City, where the offenses actually took place.
The attorney general's office is appealing that dismissal to the Nevada Supreme Court.
But state prosecutors also filed criminal charges against the electors in Carson City on the forgery component just before the statute of limitations expired.
Both cases will proceed, irrespective of Trump's pardon.
"Mr. Trump's actions have a bearing neither on my decision-making nor my prosecution of the fake electors in this state," Attorney General Aaron Ford said on Monday. "We're going to continue to try to hold them to justice."