CNN
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Nevada prosecutors have refiled criminal charges against the six Republican “fake electors” who tried to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat in that state.
The retooled charges were announced Thursday by Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat. His original case, filed last year, was thrown out by a Las Vegas judge who concluded it was filed in the wrong venue. The new charges were brought in Carson City, the state capital, where the fake electors cast their sham ballots in 2020.
CNN reported earlier this week that the new charges were expected soon, to resolve the jurisdictional hiccup and to avoid the statute of limitations potentially lapsing.
“While we disagree with the finding of improper venue and will continue to seek to overturn it, we are preserving our legal rights in order to ensure that these fake electors do not escape justice,” Ford said in a statement.
The six defendants were each charged with one felony count of alleged forgery, according to the charging documents. CNN has reached out to the defendants, who have all previously denied wrongdoing.
Ford has previously said that he is moving ahead with his case regardless of the fact that Trump won the election. Trump can’t order the Justice Department to drop these state-level prosecutions, and he can’t pardon the defendants for alleged state crimes.
The six Nevada Republicans facing renewed charges include state GOP chair Michael McDonald and Clark County GOP chair Jesse Law, who were selected by the Trump campaign to be his real electors this year. Because Trump won Nevada this year, they’ll cast electoral votes for him on Tuesday as part of the official Electoral College process.
Nevada was one of seven states across the country that Trump lost in 2020, where his campaign assembled slates of illegitimate electors. Trump and his allies then tried to use those fake GOP electors to overturn the results of the 2020 election on January 6, 2021, when Congress met to tally up the real electors from each state.
“The actions the fake electors undertook in 2020 violated Nevada criminal law and were direct attempts to both sow doubt in our democracy and undermine the results of a free and fair election,” Ford said. “Justice requires that these actions not go unpunished.”
Separately, Ford publicly confirmed for the first time on Thursday that he intends to run for Nevada governor in 2026, challenging incumbent Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.