A Nevada grand jury on Wednesday indicted six Republicans who acted as so-called “fake electors” for former President Donald Trump following his 2020 election loss in the state, according to the Associated Press.
The six fake electors were charged with offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged document, which can carry between one and five years in prison, according to the report.
“We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged,” Nevada’s Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a statement Wednesday. “Today’s indictments are the product of a long and thorough investigation, and as we pursue this prosecution, I am confident that our judicial system will see justice done.”
The six Republicans, including Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald, signed certificates falsely stating that Trump won the state and submitted them to Congress and the National Archives.
Ford “played it quiet and close the vest, and now this has a seismic impact,” tweeted former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman.
Georgia State Law Prof. Anthony Michael Kreis called the indictment a “big deal.”
“Nevada was one of the states where— for a long time— it was unclear any action would be taken against the GOP slate of electors,” he wrote. “It all but guarantees that the powers at be in Arizona will pursue similar charges against the GOP electors there.”
CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel argued on Wednesday that the indictments “should worry” Trump.
"Even though he is not named in this case the way he was in Georgia, additional charges conceivably could be brought,” she said. "But I think there's another reason for him to worry: Kenneth Chesebro is a critical witness and he's been going state to state giving evidence," she added.
The Nevada case “ramped up” after prosecutors secured the cooperation of Chesebro, one of the alleged architects of the fake-elector scheme, according to CNN.
Chesebro also advised fake electors in Wisconsin, who on Wednesday agreed to settle a civil lawsuit and admit President Joe Biden’s victory, according to the AP. They also agreed to withdraw their filings and not serve as presidential electors in any election where Trump is on the ballot.
The 10 fake electors also agreed to send a statement to government offices that received their certifications as “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.”
Former Wisconsin GOP Chairman Andrew Hitt said that he has been working with the Justice Department since May of 2022 and would not be supporting Trump in 2024.
“The Wisconsin electors were tricked and misled into participating in what became the alternate elector scheme and would have never taken any actions had we known that there were ulterior reasons beyond preserving an ongoing legal strategy,” he said.
“This appears to be Jack Smith's theory of the case and is what gets Trump-Chesebro-Giuliani in deep legal trouble,” tweeted New York University Law Prof. Ryan Goodman. “They fraudulently misled many of the false electors.”
