David C. Henley: Trump’s team to have his day in court

There is a chance, albeit a minuscule chance, that what is scheduled to transpire in a Carson City courtroom this week could lead to the nullification of Democrat Joe Biden’s Nov. 3 presidential victory in Nevada and a win in the Silver State for incumbent President Donald Trump.

Despite countless legal rulings in Nevada and other “battleground” states that Trump’s claims of massive voter fraud were unsubstantiated and that Biden was in fact the victor in those elections, Trump’s attorneys and supporters in these states continue to press on, alleging that a massive coverup, conspiracy and voter fraud engineered by so-called “deep state” operatives cost him the election.

Here in Nevada, the Nevada Supreme Court’s seven justices last week declared Biden the winner of the state’s six Electoral College votes following a state-mandated canvass of votes. Several of the justices praised Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and her staff for running a fair and transparent election despite Trump’s challenges to the Nevada vote similar to those he also made in the other battleground states. Justice James Hardesty, for example, said that Cegavske “is to be congratulated for carrying out this extraordinary election.”

The Secretary of State’s office reported that Trump lost Nevada to Biden by 33,596 votes, or 2.9 percentage points. Biden won 703,486 votes to Trump’s 669,690 votes.

The total state turnout of just over 1.4 million votes represented 77.3 percent of active voters, a gain of approximately 1 percent over votes cast in the 2016 presidential election which was won in Nevada by Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump’s claims of fraud will have their day in the Carson City courtroom when Judge James Russell of the First Judicial Court holds an evidentiary hearing at the Carson City courthouse, at which time up to 15 witnesses will be deposed to present “whistleblower” testimony showing, for example, that “the disks that were used to hold the votes would magically appear and then disappear those votes which were on on the same disk,” according to Trump campaign attorney Jesse Binnall. Binnall also alleges that there are thousands of provable instances of other types of voter fraud in Nevada that undoubtedly are enough to overturn Biden’s statewide win in favor of President Trump.

American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp called the Carson City hearing “Big news. A lot of people in the national media have said, ‘If you have evidence of voter fraud, show it.’ Well, we have thousands and thousands of examples of real people in real-life instances of voter illegality. I think it’s a great step that we’re going to have a chance to present it in court,” Schlapp said during an appearance on Fox News.

Schlapp said he believes that Biden’s Nevada win will be overturned “if the Trump campaign receives a fair hearing in Carson City.” Republicans have claimed instances of “non-residents and the deceased voting in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, as well as cases of voters casting ballots twice,” he stated. He also charged on Fox News that about half of all Nevada ballots were mailed in without legal signature verification.

If Russell should rule in favor of Trump, his decision still could be overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court. If this occurs, Trump’s attorneys may then appeal to the nine-member U.S. Supreme Court, of which three conservative members were appointed by Trump. As well, there are two or three other conservative justices on the court who also might side with Trump.

Should the Supreme Court support Trump, his attorneys in other states that also declared Biden the election winner would be expected to demand hearings before the court that conceivably could lead to Trump receiving enough electoral votes to declare him the victor in the Nov. 3 election.

All of this is far-fetched conjecture, to be sure. But if Trump is named the election winner and spends another four years in office, what takes place in the Carson City courtroom would certainly go down in history as an unexpected, shocking, unprecedented and inconceivable event that had its conception in the State of Nevada.

David C. Henley is publisher emeritus of the Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle-Standard.