Jim Troupis faces 11 felony forgery charges in Wisconsin for his alleged role in the 2020 fake elector scheme, each count carrying up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.1Associated Press. Former Trump Attorneys, Aides Plead Not Guilty to Wisconsin Fake Elector Felony Charges The former Donald Trump campaign attorney and briefly serving Dane County Circuit Court judge pleaded not guilty on June 16, 2026, and his case is headed to trial after a string of defense motions were rejected.
The 11 Felony Counts
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul brought the first forgery charge against Troupis on June 4, 2024, tied to the false electoral certificates themselves.2Law Forward. James Troupis On December 10, 2024, the Wisconsin Department of Justice added ten more counts, one for each of the Wisconsin Republicans who signed the certificates and whom prosecutors say were defrauded by the scheme.3Law Forward. Fake Elector Plot Started in Wisconsin
The case is filed in Dane County Circuit Court as case number 2024 CF 1295. Kenneth Chesebro, the attorney who drafted the scheme’s legal framework, and Mike Roman, the Trump campaign’s Election Day operations director, are named as co-defendants and face the same 11 charges.
Each forgery count carries a maximum of six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.1Associated Press. Former Trump Attorneys, Aides Plead Not Guilty to Wisconsin Fake Elector Felony Charges
What Prosecutors Allege
The core of the state’s case is that Troupis, Chesebro, and Roman misled the ten Wisconsin Republican electors about how the documents they were signing would be used. According to the criminal complaint, most of the electors understood their signatures were meant to preserve legal options in case a court later ruled Trump had won Wisconsin. They did not agree to have the certificates submitted to Congress as proof of a Trump victory in the absence of any such ruling.4PBS NewsHour. Former Trump Aides Appear in Wisconsin Court Over Fake Elector Scheme Charges
The documents at issue were created using the official 2016 Wisconsin electoral certificates as a template. Chesebro removed language referencing certification by the Wisconsin Elections Commission, replaced the state seal with a notary stamp, and specifically requested “official-looking gold seals.”5Wisconsin Public Radio. Documents Suggest Wisconsin Was Genesis of Trump False Elector Plot On December 14, 2020, the same day Wisconsin’s legitimate Democratic electors cast their ballots for Joe Biden, ten Republicans met at the state capitol and signed the alternative certificates. Participants included former Wisconsin GOP Chair Andrew Hitt and Elections Commissioner Bob Spindell.
Troupis attended a White House meeting with Trump and Chesebro that same day, a fact disclosed through later civil litigation.6PBS NewsHour. Settlement in Wisconsin Fake Elector Case Offers New Details on Strategy by Trump Lawyers
Wisconsin’s Role as the Origin of the Scheme
Documents produced in civil litigation identified Wisconsin as the birthplace of the national fake elector plan and Troupis as one of its primary architects.3Law Forward. Fake Elector Plot Started in Wisconsin Chesebro began volunteering for the Trump campaign’s legal team on November 8, 2020, and proposed that an “alternative slate” of electors could keep the election in doubt and, in his words, “pay huge dividends” by January 6, even without pending litigation.5Wisconsin Public Radio. Documents Suggest Wisconsin Was Genesis of Trump False Elector Plot
On December 9, 2020, Troupis emailed Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn and others pressing to expand the plan to Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico.3Law Forward. Fake Elector Plot Started in Wisconsin On January 6, 2021, Troupis texted Senator Ron Johnson about delivering the Wisconsin certificates to Vice President Mike Pence. Johnson’s chief of staff reached out to Pence’s office and received a direct response from a Pence aide: “Do not give that to him.”7Wisconsin Examiner. Sen. Ron Johnson Tried to Transmit Wisconsin’s Fake Electoral Votes Johnson then texted Troupis that the package would not be delivered.8NBC News. Ron Johnson Acknowledges Texting Trump Attorney on Jan. 6
By the time of that exchange, every legal challenge Troupis had filed on behalf of the Trump campaign had failed. The Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected the campaign’s lawsuit to overturn the state’s results on December 14, 2020, and a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court filed on December 29, 2020, was also unsuccessful.3Law Forward. Fake Elector Plot Started in Wisconsin
How the Evidence Came Out
Much of the documentary record now driving the criminal case surfaced through a civil lawsuit, Penebaker v. Hitt, filed in 2022 in Dane County Circuit Court by a group of Democratic voters against the ten Wisconsin electors, Troupis, and Chesebro.
The ten electors settled first. They agreed to issue a public statement acknowledging that Biden won the 2020 presidential election, that they were not the duly elected electors for Wisconsin, and that their certificates had been “used as part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results.” They formally withdrew the documents. The settlement included no financial payments and no admission of liability.9Democracy Docket. Mutual Release and Settlement Agreement
Troupis and Chesebro settled in March 2024. Under the agreement, they turned over more than 1,400 pages of emails, text messages, photos, and other records detailing their planning.10PBS Wisconsin. Wisconsin Fake Electors Settlement Reveals Details on Strategy by Trump Lawyers Troupis agreed to pay an undisclosed sum, and both men promised not to participate in similar efforts in future presidential campaigns.11Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Chesebro, Troupis Records Show Depth of Wisconsin Fake Elector Scheme The settlement contained no admission of fault. Troupis stated at the time that “nothing in today’s settlement constitutes an admission of fault, nor should it.” The state’s criminal charges followed roughly three months later.
Pretrial Motions and Their Outcomes
Troupis has mounted an aggressive pretrial defense, with motions at both the trial court and the Wisconsin Supreme Court. So far, none has stopped the case from moving forward.
Motions To Dismiss
In August 2025, Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland rejected the defendants’ arguments that the charges should be dismissed outright, allowing the prosecution to proceed.4PBS NewsHour. Former Trump Aides Appear in Wisconsin Court Over Fake Elector Scheme Charges Hyland also rejected a First Amendment defense, writing that Troupis “does not show that the First Amendment protects the right to commit forgery.”12Vernon County Broadcaster. Ex-Trump Attorney Troupis Seeks $3.2 Million From Anti-Weaponization Fund
In June 2026, Troupis filed a new motion to dismiss one of the 11 counts based on a federal pardon President Trump had issued for crimes related to the fake elector scheme. His attorneys argued that because casting electoral votes is fundamentally a federal process, the state cannot prosecute him for it.13Urban Milwaukee. Jim Troupis Says He Can’t Get Fair Trial in Madison Roman made a parallel argument. The judge had not ruled on either motion as of the June 16 arraignment.14ABC News. Former Trump Attorneys, Aides Plead Not Guilty to Wisconsin Fake Elector Felony Charges
Recusal Fights
In December 2025, Troupis asked Judge Hyland to recuse himself, claiming that all Dane County judges were biased against him and that Hyland had enlisted retired Dane County Judge Frank Remington to help write the August dismissal order. He submitted a stylistic analysis purporting to show similarities between the order and Remington’s writing.15Wisconsin Law Journal. Judge Rejects Recusal Bid in Fake Electors Case Hyland denied the motion, stating that “no person other than the assigned staff attorney and I had a hand in drafting or editing the decision” and that he had “no personal animus or prejudice toward any of the litigants.”
In February 2026, Troupis asked Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Jill Karofsky and Justice Rebecca Dallet to recuse themselves from his case, citing remarks they had made in 2020 about his Trump campaign work. Both issued identical orders in April 2026 finding “no basis” for recusal under the Constitution, state law, or Supreme Court ethics rules.16Wisconsin Public Radio. Liberal Supreme Court Justices Won’t Step Away From Troupis Forgery Case The court’s liberal majority, joined by conservative Justice Brian Hagedorn, then denied Troupis’s petition to review his misconduct claim against Hyland. Conservative Justices Annette Ziegler and Rebecca Bradley dissented.17Urban Milwaukee. No Recusal, No Misconduct Review in Wisconsin False Elector Forgery Case
Change of Venue
In June 2026, Troupis moved to shift the trial from Dane County to Jefferson County. His defense argued that extensive negative pretrial publicity, combined with the prosecution’s framing of Dane County voters as victims, made an impartial Madison jury impossible. The brief cited public comments from state Supreme Court justices, the mayor of Madison, and a former Dane County judge who had described Troupis’s actions as “racist,” “anti-democratic,” and part of a “slow-motion coup.”18Wisconsin Public Radio. Brief in Support of Motion for Change of Venue The judge had not ruled on the venue motion as of mid-June 2026.
Troupis’s defense attorney, Joe Bugni, summed up the posture: “This case is headed to trial. No question. Neither side is going to blink.”13Urban Milwaukee. Jim Troupis Says He Can’t Get Fair Trial in Madison
Professional Fallout
On June 11, 2024, one week after the first forgery charge was filed, the Wisconsin Supreme Court temporarily suspended Troupis from the Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee, where he had been serving a second three-year term.19Wisconsin Law Journal. Wisconsin Supreme Court Suspends Donald Trump Attorney James R. Troupis From Advisory Committee
On December 11, 2024, the advocacy group Law Forward filed a formal grievance against Troupis with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation. The grievance alleged violations of multiple Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules of Professional Conduct, including rules on truthfulness, misconduct involving dishonesty and fraud, and the filing of frivolous claims. It also alleged that Troupis failed to properly supervise Chesebro, who was not licensed in Wisconsin, and improperly used the title “Judge” despite serving on the bench for less than a year.20Law Forward. Troupis OLR Grievance In July 2025, Law Forward supplemented the filing to note that Chesebro had been disbarred in New York for his role in the same scheme.21Law Forward. OLR Grievance Against Troupis The OLR had not publicly announced any disciplinary action as of mid-2026.
The $3.2 Million Request
On May 26, 2026, Troupis sent a letter to Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting $3.2 million from a federal fund created as part of a settlement between Donald Trump and the IRS. The fund, valued at roughly $1.8 billion, was established to compensate individuals who claim to be “victims of lawfare and weaponization.”22Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Ex-Trump Attorney Troupis Seeks $3.2M From New Weaponization Fund
In his letter, Troupis cited documented costs exceeding $1.7 million, the “annihilation” of his reputation and law practice, thousands of hours responding to legal actions, five years of lost time with his family, and the depletion of his retirement savings. He wrote that continuing legal expenses from the forgery prosecution would likely cost him his “family home and the balance of my retirement funds.”23Wisconsin Examiner. Ex-Trump Attorney Troupis Seeks $3.2 Million From Trump Slush Fund He also cited a 2022 search of his personal email and the confiscation of his son’s electronic devices during the federal January 6 investigation.
Jeff Mandell, president and general counsel of Law Forward, called the request a continuation of Troupis’s “pattern of refusing to accept the consequences of his actions,” noting that Troupis had already been paid by the Trump campaign for his original work. Wisconsin Senate Minority Leader Diane Hesselbein introduced the “No Taxpayer Dollars for Insurrectionists Act,” which would impose a 100% state income tax on money Wisconsin residents receive through the fund.23Wisconsin Examiner. Ex-Trump Attorney Troupis Seeks $3.2 Million From Trump Slush Fund No response to the request had been publicly reported as of June 2026.