The criminal cases against his fake electors have been bogged down in delays. But prosecutors are trying to keep the charges alive.
Donald Trump’s victory in 2024 largely shattered the efforts to prosecute him for his efforts to subvert the 2020 election.
But dozens of his allies still face state-level criminal charges for their roles in the plot. The five cases against them have plodded along for years, mired in procedural gridlock, prosecutorial bungles and appellate review.
None of those cases is anywhere near a trial, yet they all remain pending — a state of legal limbo that exemplifies the nation’s halting struggle to reckon with, and achieve accountability for, Trump’s failed bid to seize a second term despite Joe Biden’s victory nearly five years ago.
On Wednesday, one of the cases will be at the Nevada Supreme Court for arguments on a key procedural issue. Two others, after long stretches of dormancy, could be revitalized in the next several months. The upcoming developments could determine whether any of the defendants ever have to face a jury for meddling in the election — even as Trump uses his office to perpetuate the bogus claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
At the core of all the cases is the effort, in December 2020, to assemble false slates of Trump electors in states he narrowly lost. Dozens of the Republicans activists who posed as electors remain under indictment. But some of the cases also sweep in more prominent Trump allies, like his former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and conservative attorneys John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani.