A Nevada judge has dismissed charges against six Republicans who falsely declared that Donald Trump won the 2020 election in the battleground state, after ruling that the case had been brought under the wrong jurisdiction.
Clark County District Court Judge Mary Kay Holthus on Friday sided with attorneys’ argument that Las Vegas was the wrong location for the case. Holthus canceled the trial, which was scheduled to begin in January.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said his office will take the case to the state Supreme Court. “The judge got it wrong and we will appeal immediately,” he said in a statement.
In December, a grand jury in Clark County indicted six Republicans who participated in the so-called fake voter scheme: State Chairman Michael McDonald; National Party Committee Member Jim DeGraffenreid; Jesse Law, chairman of the Clark County Republican Party; national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan; Storey County Clerk Jim Hindle; and Eileen Rice, a Republican from the Lake Tahoe area. (McDonald and DeGraffenreid also appeared last year before a Washington, D.C., grand jury investigating the January 6 insurrection.) All pleaded not guilty.
Defense attorneys had argued that the case should have been tried in Carson City or Reno, where the alleged crimes occurred, instead of Las Vegas, the state’s bluest city and where several of the defendants live.
Attorneys Monti Levy and Richard Wright, who represent McDonald and Rice, applauded the judge’s ruling on Friday, telling NBC News they are “confident” Holthus’ ruling will be upheld by the Nevada Supreme Court. The state now cannot take the case to a grand jury in another county because the three-year statute of limitations expired in December, attorneys also said, according to the Associated Press.
Nevada is one of several swing states in which Republicans have filed false certifications declaring Trump the winner of the 2020 election instead of Joe Biden. Charges have also been filed against fake voters in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
