Former Las Vegas city councilwoman, 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary candidate, and current Nye County justice of the peace Michele Fiore was indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday for “her alleged scheme to defraud donors to a charity to memorialize police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty,” according to a Justice Department press release coming just over three years to the day after the reports of a federal investigation into a campaign finance scam first surfaced.
“According to the indictment, Fiore, 53, solicited donations to build a statue honoring Las Vegas police officers who were killed in the line of duty. Fiore allegedly promised donors that ‘100 percent of the contributions’ would be used towards the creation of this statue. As alleged, Fiore did not use any of the tens of thousands of dollars in charitable donations for the statue of the fallen officer and instead converted the money to her personal use. The donations were used to pay her political fundraising bills and rent and were transferred to family members, including to pay for her daughter’s wedding. Fiore is charged with four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.”
Fiore doesn’t have a JD – actually not even a bachelors – but since December 2022 is serving as a justice of the peace in the very MAGA county after the commission appointed her for God knows what reason. She was appointed after losing her 2022 bid for state treasurer, running for that office after her gubernatorial primary campaign’s running ads in Mar-a-Lago’s media market – about 2,000 miles from Nevada – failed to land her an endorsement from the Orange God Emperor.