MADISON — Three associates of President-elect Donald Trump made their first court appearances in Madison on Thursday on forgery charges stemming from the state’s fake elector scheme in 2020.
Jim Troupis, Michael Roman and Kenneth Chesebro stand accused of orchestrating a plot to submit false paperwork saying Trump won the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Department of Justice has filed 11 felony fraud charges against each man.
Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul first announced a single forgery charge against each of the three Trump campaign advisors in June. Then on Tuesday, just two days before the men were scheduled to appear in court, the Department of Justice charged the men with 10 additional felonies — one for each of the fake electors who signed the certificate of votes.
According to court filings, some of the Republican electors have told investigators that they believed the certificate of votes was a contingency plan in case a court ruled that Trump had won the race in Wisconsin. Messages obtained by investigators show how, despite President Joe Biden being declared the winner in Wisconsin, Troupis, Roman and Chesebro attempted to bring the false slate of electors to Congress to be counted on Jan. 6, 2021.
Troupis, who was Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin in 2020, was the only defendant to appear in person on Thursday. The others dialed in by phone.
Troupis told reporters he believes the fake electors were necessary for the Trump campaign to have legal standing in election challenges.
“This is a political case. This has nothing to do with the law,” Troupis said after the hearing. “The attorney general has today doubled down on a vicious strategy to destroy our very faith in the system of justice by using the courts for his own personal political gain.”
Troupis and Roman are asking a judge to dismiss the charges against them.
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Asked about Troupis’ assertion that the actions he took were par for the course in a close election, Kaul deferred to the judicial process.
“The Wisconsin Department of Justice makes decisions in cases based on the facts and the law. In this case, like all other cases, we will litigate the issues in dispute in a court of law,” Kaul said in an emailed statement.
Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Troupis took to conservative radio, asking supporters to show up at the courthouse. Among the small crowd that turned out was former Republican Gov. Scott McCallum. He defended the actions of the three Trump associates.
“The law was followed. They followed every direction that was given to them, and now they’re being punished for it,” McCallum said.
After Trump’s victory in Wisconsin in this year’s presidential election, GOP electors are planning to meet in mid-December to cast their electoral votes. However, Wisconsin laws are not aligned with new federal requirements for when the vote should take place. Republicans asked a judge earlier this week to clarify whether their meeting should be held on Dec. 16, as state law requires, or Dec. 17, as federal law requires.
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