Michele Fiore is a former Nevada state assemblywoman, Las Vegas city councilwoman, and Pahrump justice of the peace who was convicted in October 2024 on six counts of federal wire fraud and one count of conspiracy for soliciting donations to a slain police officer’s memorial and spending the money on rent, cosmetic procedures, and her daughter’s wedding. President Donald Trump pardoned her in April 2025, before she was sentenced. She has been suspended from the bench since July 2024 and, as of mid-2026, remains suspended while the Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline pursues formal charges against her.
The Charity Fraud Scheme
Between 2019 and 2020, while sitting on the Las Vegas City Council, Fiore raised money she said would fund a memorial statue for Alyn Beck, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer killed in the line of duty in 2014. She told donors 100 percent of contributions would go to the statue and set a goal of $80,000. Donations went into two entities she controlled: a political action committee called Future for Nevadans and a nonprofit called A Bright Present Foundation, which her daughter Sheena Siegel helped manage.
The statue did not need the money. A private developer, Olympia Companies, had already contracted and paid roughly $90,000 for it. None of the funds Fiore raised were used for the memorial. Forensic accounting presented at trial traced donor checks into the accounts and then out to Fiore’s personal expenses, including rent, cosmetic procedures, and her daughter’s wedding-planning costs.
Prosecutors pointed to one transaction as typical of the pattern: a $5,000 donation from the campaign of then-Sheriff Joe Lombardo was deposited into the PAC and shortly afterward moved to Siegel’s account, where it was used to buy a money order for Fiore’s rent.
A grim connection sat behind the whole scheme. Beck and his partner Igor Soldo were murdered in 2014 by individuals who had been expelled from the Bundy Ranch standoff that Fiore had publicly championed.
The Trial and Conviction
A federal grand jury indicted Fiore on four counts of wire fraud, and a superseding indictment brought the total to six wire fraud counts plus one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The case was tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada before Judge Jennifer Dorsey in the fall of 2024.
Over eight days, eleven witnesses testified they had donated based on Fiore’s promise that the money would support the Beck memorial. Government forensic evidence tracked the money from donor checks into Fiore’s accounts and out to personal expenses. Each count carried a maximum of 20 years in prison.
The jury deliberated about two hours and convicted her on all seven counts in October 2024.
The Trump Pardon
Fiore asked for acquittal and a new trial, arguing prosecutorial and trial errors. Judge Dorsey denied both motions on April 18, 2025, and set sentencing for May 14, 2025. Fiore never appeared for it. On April 23, 2025, President Trump granted her a full and unconditional pardon. Her attorneys moved to vacate the sentencing, and the criminal case was closed.
The White House did not publicly explain the decision. Politico reported that Trump had used his pardon power broadly to spare political allies and people he believed had been treated unfairly by federal law enforcement.
Why She Is Still Suspended From the Bench
A pardon wipes out a criminal conviction. It does not settle judicial ethics. The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline first suspended Fiore in July 2024, shortly after the federal indictment. After the October 2024 conviction, the commission modified her suspension to withhold pay, invoking a Nevada law that permits suspending judges without pay upon felony conviction. When the pardon erased the conviction, the commission restored her pay but kept the suspension in place, citing what it called Fiore’s “ongoing wrongful retention of the donations and unjust enrichment” and her refusal to reimburse donors, calling it an “emergent threat to the judiciary.”
On April 24, 2026, the commission filed a formal three-count statement of charges. The allegations covered the fraud conduct itself, her failure to notify donors and return funds after the stated purpose fell away, and the damage her actions caused to public confidence in the judiciary. The commission can impose penalties from a formal reprimand and fines up to removal from office.
Fiore challenged the commission’s authority in the Nevada Supreme Court, arguing it lacked jurisdiction because the alleged conduct predated her judgeship and that it had abused its discretion in finding she was a substantial threat. In a unanimous ruling on April 10, 2026, the court rejected both arguments, holding that the commission was still investigating rather than imposing final discipline and that its interim suspension authority was proper. The court noted that additional confidential complaints against Fiore were under investigation. The suspension with pay was affirmed.
Her Political Career Before the Case
Fiore was first elected to the Nevada Assembly from Clark County’s District 4 in 2012 and rose to Republican majority leader and chair of the Taxation Committee. That perch drew scrutiny when reporting revealed 45 IRS tax liens totaling more than $1 million against her and her home health care businesses, some dating to 2003. She said the debts came from a former bookkeeper’s mismanagement and that she had reduced the balance under a payment plan, though she did not provide documentation. She was eventually stripped of her leadership posts by Speaker-designate John Hambrick, who cited “repeated insubordination.” Fiore called it a “war on women” and a “war on conservatives.”
She sponsored bills expanding concealed-carry rights and challenging federal authority over public lands. She became a national figure through her vocal support of Cliven Bundy during the 2014 armed standoff with the Bureau of Land Management near Bunkerville. In February 2016, she flew to Portland and helped negotiate the surrender of the last four holdouts at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation in Oregon, telling them by live-streamed phone call, “Jail or no jail, I need you to stay alive.”
Fiore won the Las Vegas City Council seat for Ward 6 in June 2017 with 51 percent of the vote. She served until late 2022, when her tenure ended amid a residency dispute after she established residency in Nye County on November 15, 2022, following a failed Republican primary run for state treasurer. Las Vegas city code provides that a council member forfeits office upon ceasing to reside in the city or ward, yet Fiore cast a swing vote at a council meeting the day after her move.
Five weeks later, on December 20, 2022, the Nye County Commission unanimously appointed her to fill a vacant Pahrump Justice of the Peace seat left open by the death of Judge Kent Jasperson. Commissioner Donna Cox cited Fiore’s “ambition, knowledge, and recommendation from former President Donald Trump.” During her interview, Fiore told commissioners she did not mind people bringing guns into her courtroom: “If we get in a gun battle, I’ll probably win.”
Where Things Stand Now
Fiore ran for re-election to her judicial seat in the June 2026 primary while still suspended. Her campaign advertising leaned on the pardon: “They attacked her. She fought back. President Trump stood with Judge Fiore.” She finished third with about 23 percent, behind pro-tem replacement Michael Foley at roughly 42 percent and challenger Scott Oakley at roughly 26 percent. The top two advanced to a November runoff; Fiore was eliminated.
As of mid-2026, she remains suspended with pay. Nye County officials confirmed she had been paid approximately $194,000 since the suspension began in July 2024, and the county said it planned to continue paying her through the end of her term unless the judicial discipline commission directs otherwise. The commission has said it intends to move forward with its formal charges, which could end in removal from office.