by April Corbin Girnus, Nevada Current
Nevada State Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid is one of six non-Georgia residents being summoned to testify in an upcoming trial for Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell — two attorneys indicted by the Peach State for their part in attempting to overthrow the results of the 2020 election.
Fulton County prosecutors in a legal filing say DeGraffenreid and Chesebro communicated about the logistics of the convening of Nevada’s fake electors for former President Donald Trump on Dec. 14, 2020 and that Chesebro provided “specific documents and instructions” to DeGraffenreid.
“DeGraffenreid possesses unique knowledge concerning communications between himself and Kenneth John Chesebro and other known and unknown individuals involved in the multi-state, coordinated efforts to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Nevada, Georgia, and elsewhere,” reads the filing dated Oct. 3.
According to the document, which was reported on by Politico, DeGraffenreid’s testimony is expected to last no longer than one day.
The State of Georgia has indicted 19 people for racketeering, conspiracy and a slew of other crimes. The group includes Trump himself, his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and his former chief of staff Mark Meadows.
Chesebro and Powell have opted for a speedy trial, and their trial is set to begin Oct. 23 in the downtown Atlanta courthouse.
No trial dates have been set for Trump and the other 16 defendants.
What we know about DeGraffenreid’s involvement
DeGraffenreid, along with Nevada State Republican Chairman Michael McDonald, were both subpoenaed by the U.S. House January 6th Committee, which investigated Trump’s role in the 2021 attack on the capitol.
Transcripts of their oral testimony show both DeGraffenreid and McDonald declined to answer questions about their role as Nevada fake electors, citing the Fifth Amendment. But emails and documents submitted as part of that investigation showed direct communication between the Nevadans and Chesebro.
A Dec. 10, 2020 email from Chesebro to McDonald, DeGraffenried and others read: “Mayor Giuliani and others with the Trump-Pence campaign, including (Trump campaign officials) Justin Clark and Nick Trainer, asked me to reach out to you and the other Nevada electors to run point on the plan to have all Trump-Pence electors in all six contested states meet and transmit their votes to Congress on Monday, December 14.”
A Dec. 9, 2020 memo from Chesebro titled “Statutory Requirements for December 14th Electoral Votes” read: “Nevada is an extremely problematic State because it requires the meeting of the electors to be overseen by the Secretary of State, who is only supposed to permit electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote in Nevada.”
It continued, “If there were a vote in Congress to take Nevada away from Biden and Harris, presumably along with it would come a vote to overlook this procedural detail.”
In a Dec. 10, 2020 email to DeGraffenried, Chesebro wrote that Giuliani was “focused on doing everything possible to ensure that all the Trump-Pence electors vote on December 14th.”
“It may well be,” Chesebro continued, “that the electoral vote proceeds without the participation of the Secretary of State” in Nevada “on the view that these technical aspects of state law are unlikely to matter much in the end.”
DeGraffenreid — and McDonald — were also called to testify in special counsel Jack Smith’s federal investigation of Trump. Both received “limited immunity” for their testimony, according to CNN.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has said DeGraffenreid, McDonald and their fellow fake electors will face no charges in the Silver State.
“With it on our radar, we ascertained that current state statutes did not directly address the conduct in question,” Ford testified during a legislative hearing in May.
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