Accused fake elector will formally declare Trump as party nominee at Republican National Convention

Nevada GOP chair Michael McDonald, right, shakes hands with Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a campaign event, Jan. 27, 2024, in Las Vegas. AP Photo/John Locher.

The man formally presenting convicted felon and former President Donald Trump with his nomination as leader of the Republican Party at the Republican National Convention this week will be Michael McDonald, the Nevada GOP chairman who was indicted along with five others for allegedly submitting bogus electoral slates for the 2020 election that declared Trump winner despite President Joe Biden ‘s victory.

As Law&Crime reported, McDonald, who also serves as a senior adviser to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, was indicted in December, several weeks after Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford opened a probe into individuals who falsely pledged Nevada’s electoral votes to Trump.

However, that indictment was dismissed in June by Nevada Judge Mary Kay Holthus, who threw the case out of Clark County after she ruled that it was brought to the wrong jurisdiction for trial: most of the accused electors in Nevada lived outside of Clark County. Nevada’s Attorney General Aaron Ford said last month that prosecutors would appeal. Ford did not immediately return a request for comment to Law&Crime on Monday.

McDonald also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

In addition to McDonald, Nevada Republican Party committee member Jim DeGraffenreid, Storey County clerk Jim Hindle, Clark County Republican Party chairman Jesse Law, national and Douglas County committee member Shawn Meehan, and local party member Eileen Rice were also charged in the Nevada fake elector case.

Notably, McDonald made a concerted effort to ensure Trump had an advantage in this year’s election in Nevada, as the New York Times reported in August 2023 and then again in February . Though Nevada law requires the state to have a Republican primary, McDonald coordinated a leapfrogging of that plan and instead of the primary, he scheduled a caucus where members decided to award delegates purely on those caucus results.

McDonald, once a police officer and an elected member of the Las Vegas City Council, was found in violation of ethics laws in 2001 after the Nevada Commission on Ethics found he tried to cut a sweetheart deal to open a sports complex in the state that was partially owned by one of his employers.

In the fake electors’ case, McDonald has routinely denied any wrongdoing.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal on July 2, McDonald gushed about his new role with the Trump 2024 campaign.

“This is something that is personal for me. I know the man personally. It’s not just a title, it’s a badge of honor to be in this position, to be for him and the Trump campaign,” he said.

McDonald, who has served as chairman of the Nevada GOP since 2012, told the outlet his position with the Trump campaign is a voluntary one.

A spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s campaign in Nevada slammed the decision.

“Just last week on the debate stage, Trump refused to answer, three times in a row, whether he would accept the results of the election, and this latest hire in Nevada makes it clear Trump is solely focused on regaining power. Trump already tried to overturn one election, and Nevadans need to come together to defeat him and protect democracy,” Maddy Pawlak told the Review-Journal on July 2.

A spokesperson for the Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday about McDonald’s formal unveiling of Trump as the GOP’s nominee, but on X.com, formerly Twitter, a Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa reacted Friday.

“WOW. Donald Trump is going to be presented the nomination by the architect of NV’s scheme to steal the election — the same lies that inspired the mob to attack the United States Capitol to overthrow an election,” Moussa wrote.

In addition to McDonald, a fellow fake elector slate champion and Trump’s former trade adviser Peter Navarro is also expected to attend the RNC convention this week. A master calendar for the convention lists a book signing for Navarro between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Thursday. Navarro was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena request from the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol and as Law&Crime reported , his many attempts to avoid prison or be released early were summarily rebuffed by appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court. Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison and will be released on July 17, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

In 2020, nearly 100 fake electors across seven battleground states submitted false electoral certificates claiming Trump won the presidential election. Fake electors from Nevada, Wisconsin , Arizona , Michigan and Georgia have been indicted or criminally charged. No charges have been filed at this time against fake electors in New Mexico and Pennsylvania since electoral certificates submitted there featured an addendum stating that the slates should be counted only if a court deemed them genuine. The Georgia election interference case where Trump is named as a defendant alongside more than a dozen others including Rudy Giuliani and Jeffrey Clark , is on hold until 2025.

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