President Donald Trump on Sunday pardoned six Nevada Republicans who face state forgery charges for falsely certifying him as the winner of the state’s 2020 electoral votes — but the gesture is expected to have no effect on their ongoing prosecution because presidential clemency does not extend to state crimes.

Trump issued pardons to 77 political allies involved in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including six Nevadans and high-profile figures such as former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and attorney Sidney Powell. U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin announced the “full, complete, and unconditional” pardons late Sunday.

The Nevada GOP praised the pardons on X, stating: “Thank you @realDonaldTrump for pardoning our brave Nevada electors. Standing up for truth and justice carries a heavy price, but the cause of liberty is a blessed one to have you as our champion and @McDonaldNV as our leader in Nevada!”

Emily Persaud-Zamora, executive director of Silver State Voices, criticized the move. 

“Federal pardons for the fake electors, even if state-level justice continues, fly in the face of justice,” she said in a statement to KSNV-TV in Las Vegas. “Nevada voters deserve to know that their elections are safe and secure. Shielding the president’s allies from justice will do nothing but undermine that very premise.”

The six Nevada Republicans — GOP Chairman Michael McDonald, Clark County GOP Chairman Jesse Law, Republican National Committeeman Jim DeGraffenreid, state party Vice Chairman Jim Hindle, Shawn Meehan and Eileen Rice — gathered in Carson City on Dec. 14, 2020, and signed certificates falsely stating Trump won Nevada’s presidential election, despite Democrat Joe Biden defeating Trump by approximately 30,000 votes. They sent the fraudulent document to the National Archives and Congress, where it was ultimately ignored.

Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic opponent, carried Nevada by more than 33,000 votes in 2020 — a margin certified by Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, who made clear there was no evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities. With every court challenge to the result dismissed, Biden’s win in the Silver State stood firm despite repeated attempts to cast doubt on the outcome.

Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford originally filed charges in Clark County in December 2023, accusing the six fake electors of offering a false instrument for filing and uttering a forged instrument — felonies carrying penalties of up to four or five years in prison. However, Clark County District Judge Mary Kay Holthus dismissed those charges in June 2024, ruling the case was filed in the wrong venue because the signing ceremony occurred in Carson City.

Ford refiled the charges in Carson City District Court in December 2024, just before the four-year statute of limitations expired. The attorney general maintains his office will continue pursuing an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court to return the case to Clark County.

In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the pardoned individuals “were persecuted and put through hell by the Biden administration for challenging an election, which is the cornerstone of democracy.”

The pardons explicitly state they do not apply to Trump himself. Similar fake elector schemes in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin have resulted in state criminal charges. 

Trump previously pardoned approximately 1,500 Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendants upon returning to office in January.