Former US President Donald Trump arrives to attend the Trump Organization civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court in the Manhattan borough of New York, US, December 7 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar Acquire license rights
WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Nevada indicted six fake Republican voters in a scheme to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden, while 10 fake voters reached a settlement legal in Wisconsin confirming the Democrat’s victory.
WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
Wednesday’s actions marked the latest legal developments in a 2020 plan to persuade Republican-controlled legislatures in electoral battleground states to appoint their own pro-Trump electors.
The indictments made Nevada the third state, behind Michigan And Georgiato file charges against Republicans who served as bogus electors in 2020. In the Wisconsin civil lawsuit, Republican electors admitted their effort to overturn the election results and recognized Biden’s victory as legitimate.
In U.S. presidential elections, voters do not directly choose who goes to the White House. Instead, their ballots determine each state’s slate of electors, who choose the president through a constitutionally mandated process.
CONTEXT
Trump, 77, the front-runner in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, pushed false claims of a stolen election that led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by his supporters.
Federal Special Prosecutor Jack Smith charge accusing Trump of trying to overturn the 2020 election included an accusation sought by the then-president and his allies. lists of fake voters to support his false claims that he beat Biden.
KEY QUOTES
“The fake voter schemes in Nevada, Wisconsin and Michigan may not involve well-known names, but they could produce important witnesses and documents for Jack Smith, and bring accountability for abuses of power in their states ” said Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan. social media platform X Thursday.
“We cannot allow attacks on democracy to go unchallenged,” Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a statement.
AND AFTER
Trump and some of his supporters continue to adhere to false claims of widespread voter fraud that have been rejected by multiple courts, by state reviews and by members of Trump’s own administration. Legal proceedings involving voters could support prosecutors in some of the four criminal cases Trump faces as he seeks to challenge Biden in November.
Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; edited by Jonathan Oatis
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
