MADISON, WISCONSIN – Two former Trump campaign attorneys and an aide appeared in Wisconsin court Monday for a preliminary hearing on felony forgery charges tied to a 2020 fake elector scheme.
The case moves forward while similar efforts in other battleground states, including Michigan and Georgia, have stalled. A federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election was dropped last year, though a separate case in Nevada remains active. The Wisconsin charges, filed in 2024, have been delayed as the defendants sought unsuccessfully to have them dismissed.
Monday’s hearing follows a recent motion by former Trump attorney Jim Troupis, who requested that the judge recuse himself and move the case to another county. Troupis claimed the judge’s prior order rejecting dismissal had been written by the father of the judge’s law clerk and alleged bias from all Dane County judges. Judge John Hyland rejected the claims, stating he and a staff attorney alone wrote the order and that Troupis provided no evidence of bias. Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson called on the Department of Justice to investigate Troupis’s allegations.
The three defendants—Troupis, attorney Kenneth Chesebro, and Mike Roman, Trump’s 2020 director of Election Day operations—face 11 felony charges each. The Wisconsin Department of Justice, led by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, alleges the trio misled Republican electors about the use of certificates claiming Trump won the state. Prosecutors contend the defendants falsely represented the documents as part of a plan to submit them to then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Investigators say most of the 10 Republican electors believed they were signing the certificates only as a contingency in case a court changed the election outcome, and did not consent to their signatures being submitted as though Trump had won without a court ruling. Federal prosecutors have noted that the Wisconsin fake elector plan was part of the broader Jan. 6, 2021, scheme.
The former Trump aides argue no crime occurred, but the judge allowed the case to proceed to Monday’s hearing. Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but won it in 2016 and 2024. The charges are limited to the three campaign associates; none of the electors face charges. Earlier, Chesebro, Troupis, and the electors settled a civil lawsuit seeking damages.