Her attorney stated in new court records that Michele Fiore, a former member of the Las Vegas City Council, has been designated as a domestic terrorist by the government. This classification is based on threat levels determined by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.
The allegations of wire fraud and conspiracy were brought against Fiore, who is 53 years old and lives in Pahrump, by a federal grand jury in July.
Prosecutors have accused her of raising tens of thousands of dollars for a statue of Alyn Beck, a fallen officer with the Metropolitan Police Department, but then spending the money on herself and her daughter’s wedding instead. Despite the fact that she has entered a plea of not guilty, her trial is slated to begin on September 24.
Terrorist designation
Throughout the entirety of her political career, Fiore has been surrounded by controversy. During her time as an assemblywoman in 2015, she grabbed the attention of people all over the world with a Christmas card that depicted her and her family carrying firearms.
A investigation published in 2019 by the Review-Journal revealed that Fiore had a history of not reporting his taxes. Victoria Seaman, another councilwoman, said that Fiore was responsible for fracturing her finger during an altercation that took place at city hall. We reached out to Sanft and Fiore for comment on Friday, but they did not answer.
Sanft claims that at some point in time, the government raised the threat level categorization of Fiore from a level for racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism, which was assigned by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, to a level for anti-government and anti-authority violent extremism.
Sanft stated that the categorization of the individual as a terrorist was “an abhorrent and meritless abuse of due process that has yet to be seen in any type of case against a public servant for purported and alleged campaign finance violations.”
The United States Department of Justice did not provide a statement. The house of Fiore was searched by the Federal Bureau of inquiry (FBI) in 2021 as part of an inquiry into campaign finance, as was previously reported by the Review-Journal.
According to the statements made by the prosecution, “Fiore has repeatedly defrauded donors to her campaigns, her political action committee, and even her Section 501(c)(3) charity by covertly diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to those entities for her personal use.”
Fight over testimony
There is also a fight between Sanft and the prosecutors over whether Nicole Beck, who is married to the officer whose statue is at the center of the case, can appear.
The public can not see the witness names right now, but Sanft said in a filing that Beck was given a subpoena to appear in court. Sanft said Beck does not know anything about the accusations against Fiore.
“The government’s insistence on including the widow of fallen officer Alyn Beck does nothing but further anger the public and the jury against Ms. Fiore,” he said. In court papers, the prosecutors said that Nicole Beck would “give testimony that will be relevant and not unfairly prejudicial.”
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Authorities say Fiore had never met Nicole Beck before she suggested the statue at a gathering to break ground for a park honoring Alyn Beck. Nicole Beck was not totally on board with the idea.
Plaintiffs wrote in their brief that the US expected Nicole Beck to say in court that she was not sure she liked the idea of a statue because she did not think it would look like her husband and she was afraid that anti-police protests would damage it.
Prosecutors say Fiore also did not tell Beck about her efforts to raise money for the statue. “The fact that Fiore never asked Mrs. Beck how she felt about the statue and that she barely talked to her during the whole process is evidence that her real goal was not to honor Beck’s husband,” the prosecutors said.
“The goal was to find a way for her to get money from kind people and make herself and her family rich.” Fiore’s “anticipated defense” was also hinted at by the prosecutors: that she stole the money because of the “unexpected” kindness of the company that paid for the park and the statue.
