A pro-gun , anti-vaccine Nevada politician was found guilty Thursday on more than a half-dozen felony charges for raising tens of thousands of dollars to erect a memorial to a police officer killed in the line of duty, but instead spending the money on, among other things, rent, travel, plastic surgery, and her daughter’s wedding. Michele Fiore, a 54-year-old MAGA-centric Republican who has publicly expressed the belief that cancer is a fungus curable with baking soda and salt water, was suspended in July from her position as a Nye County justice of the peace after a federal grand jury handed down an indictment on six counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Fiore at the time called the allegations “repugnant.
” A jury convicted Fiore, a member of the Nevada State Assembly from 2012 to 2016, on all seven counts after less than two hours of deliberation, something Fiore’s attorney claimed was indicative of the jurors having already “made up their minds” before the trial was over. “We’re still in it,” Fiore told reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict was handed down. “We’re still in the thick of things and my attorney is going to hopefully, you know, apprise you of a lot of situations that you’re unaware of.
You were aware yesterday that I wanted to say a few things to the judge and I wasn’t allowed to.” According to the indictment, Fiore’s criminal scheme unfolded over a seven-month period between July 2019.
