Feds deem former Las Vegas councilwoman Fiore ‘domestic terrorist,’ lawyer says

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The government classified former Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore as a “domestic terrorist” in 2020, a title she has kept amid recent legal troubles in federal court, her lawyer said in court documents.

In July, a federal grand jury indicted Fiore — now a suspended Pahrump Justice Court judge — on several counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Fiore “engaged in a scheme to defraud charitable donors of more than $70,000 for her own personal benefit,” a superseding indictment from August said.

Fiore has pleaded not guilty and a trial was scheduled for later this year.

In court documents filed Tuesday, Fiore’s attorney, Michael Sanft, said his client was classified as a “domestic terrorist” following her support for rancher Cliven Bundy and the armed standoff he had with the government in 2014. The documents surround what evidence could be entered in Fiore’s federal trial.

Sanft said the government upped security during Fiore’s July arraignment and that her threat-level status was increased in 2020.

“The designation of Ms. Fiore as a Level I Domestic Terrorist which was subsequently modified to a Level II Domestic Terrorist without any discovery or justification received for said designation is disturbing in and of itself,” Sanft wrote in court documents. “The designation of an elected public official, who has served the State of Nevada for over a decade, as a Domestic Terrorist is equally inconceivable as it is an unfathomable proposition.”

Court documents say from 2017 to 2022, Fiore allegedly founded and mismanaged funds that were intended to pay for memorial statues for a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer who died in the line of duty. Documents allege she spent money from charitable donations for “a variety of personal expenses, including rent, travel … and a payment for Fiore’s daughter’s wedding.”

During Monday’s so-called calendar call, attorneys said in court that the trial could last over two weeks, and asked whether certain witnesses who live out of state could testify remotely. Dorsey advised that the court has the technological capacity to accommodate that request, and then federal prosecutors indicated that they’d like to discuss the logistics of certain witnesses in private. Dorsey questioned attorneys as to why the rest of the hearing should be conducted in private, especially considering that there was no jury present – and closed the courtroom despite neither party arguing that the reason for the privacy of those witnesses outweighs the “vital interest in open judicial proceedings” enumerated in Department of Justice guidelines.

Fiore unsuccessfully ran for state treasurer and governor as a Republican.

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