It was a tough week for Adam Laxalt, the Nevada Republican Party’s law-and-order candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Laxalt, a former state attorney general, has spent time and capital positioning himself as the best sheriff to protect Nevada from godless Democrats, lawless lefties, and progressive hobgoblins who scheme to steal elections. He’s picked up allies along the way.

The ex-Navy JAG lawyer recently touted an endorsement from the National Association of Police Organizations. To add to the branding effort, Laxalt has also gained the support of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association, whose government affairs director has enthused, “We know that Adam Laxalt will have our back.”

From the look of Donald Trump’s July 8 appearance at Treasure Island, in which he called Nevada a “cesspool of crime” as acolytes Laxalt, Clark County Sheriff and GOP gubernatorial hopeful Joe Lombardo and police union officials grinned in admiration, there’s no limit to the Republican tough-on-crime rhetoric. In one meandering speech, Trump managed to simultaneously compliment and tar Laxalt and Lombardo.

Setting aside the fact Laxalt’s opponent, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, served two terms as Nevada’s attorney general, not everyone has jumped on Laxalt’s badge-polishing bandwagon. Notably absent from Laxalt’s endorsements was Reno Police Chief Jason Soto, who recently announced his support for Cortez Masto. She also has support from other law enforcement organizations, including the Nevada Law Enforcement Coalition and Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers. Combined they represent 19 law enforcement organizations and unions in the state.

Soto is no progressive in cop’s clothing. It was the first time he had ever endorsed a Democrat. And the Reno top cop lending his support to Cortez Masto right in Laxalt’s backyard was bad news for the Republican.

The news got much worse Monday when the FBI served a search warrant on former President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago seeking boxes of confidential documents purloined from the White House. Trump and his sycophants immediately began to float lies and conspiracies that included the FBI planting evidence and being manipulated by mysterious left-wing influencers.

To no one’s surprise, Laxalt jumped to attention in blind support of Trump, tweeting, “We don’t live in a 3^rd world country. We live in America. Today’s raid of Trump’s home is just another example of the growing weaponization of our federal agencies by the Left while people like Hunter Biden live freely.”

It was about what you’d expect from a guy who energetically promoted Trump’s Big Lie about widespread voter fraud in the face of the facts. Given Laxalt’s downplaying of the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, an event which saw law enforcement officers killed and injured, it would have been more surprising if he’d exercised his right to remain silent. 

Then, the other shoe dropped. The Washington Post reported that some of the material sought in the Trump search warrant included classified documents related to nuclear weapons. Trump immediately called the reporting a “hoax” and – surprise! – is now attempting to fundraise off the scandal while FBI agents and Department of Justice officials continue to receive threats from his diehards.

Law-and-order party?

The twice-impeached Trump is the biggest scofflaw in the history of the presidency, and continues to set new lows now that he’s out of office. The guy who once chided, “If you are innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” exercised that right more than 400 times in a deposition in the New York attorney general’s withering civil investigation into his business practices.

More than 400 times. Meyer Lansky only ducked Estes Kefauver’s questions 33 times.

Law-and-order party?

You’d be forgiven for confusing Laxalt’s rhetoric with Trump’s, but Laxalt is the actual candidate for Senate. And now that he’s declared himself the law-and-order candidate, his record is fair game.

Although that record includes incidents from a reckless youth, far more concerning is his failure to disclose a juvenile arrest on suspicion of assaulting a police officer on his State Bar of Nevada application. The Democrats continue to ding him for it. A little more candor might have silenced his critics long ago. But perhaps he forgot.

Laxalt appeared to have forgotten again in October 2021 when asked about the incident under oath during the federal trial of Trumplandia hustler Lev Parnas. Parnas was eventually found guilty of being a pass-through for Russian oligarch Andrey Muraviev’s attempts to make illegal contributions to US politicians, including then-gubernatorial candidate Laxalt.

Something a lot more troubling came in February 2017 when The Nevada Independent first reported that then-AG Laxalt had privately approached Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett with a plan to have the casino industry regulator intervene in a civil lawsuit involving gaming billionaire and GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. Adelson had been one of Laxalt’s biggest political supporters. Adelson wound up losing millions in the lawsuit.

Burnett was so alarmed by Laxalt’s water-carrying that he recorded their conversation and turned over the tape to the FBI. After an inquiry, no charges were filed. Some people think Laxalt got lucky.

Who knows, perhaps the FBI wasn’t in thrall to the Left in those days.

It turned out to be a good thing for the Nevada GOP’s law-and-order candidate for the U.S. Senate.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in Time, Readers Digest, The Daily Beast, Reuters, Ruralite and Desert Companion, among others. He also offers weekly commentary on Nevada Public Radio station KNPR.