Former Trump aides appear in Wisconsin court on fake 2020 election scheme charges

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Two lawyers and an aide who all worked on President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony fraud charges related to a bogus election scheme.

The Wisconsin case is moving forward even as other cases falter in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging that Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.

The Wisconsin case was filed a year ago, but was put on hold as Trump aides have fought, so far unsuccessfully, to have the charges dropped.

Monday’s hearing comes a week after Trump’s lawyer Jim Troupis, one of the three indicted, unsuccessfully tried to persuade the judge to recuse himself in the case and transfer it to another county. Troupis, whose two other defendants joined in his motion, claimed that the judge did not write an earlier order issued in August refusing to dismiss the case. Instead, the notary’s father, a retired judge, was accused of actually writing the opinion.

Troupis, who served for a year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also claimed that all the judges in Dane County were biased against him and he could not get a fair trial.

Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland said he and the staff attorney alone wrote the order. Hyland also said that Troupis presented no evidence to support his claims of bias and refused to recuse himself or delay the hearing.

US Republican Senator Ron Johnson asked the US Department of Justice to investigate these accusations.

The same judge will determine at Monday’s hearing whether there is sufficient evidence to continue the charges against the three.

Former Trump aides face 11 criminal charges each related to their role in the 2020 fraudulent voter scheme. In addition to Troupis, the others charged are Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised the Trump campaign, and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020.

Read more: What you need to know about Kenneth Chesebro’s 2020 election counts

The Wisconsin Department of Justice, headed by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, brought fraud charges in 2024, alleging that the three defrauded the 10 Republican electors who cast ballots for Trump in 2020.

Prosecutors contend that the three lied to Republicans about how the testimony they signed was used as part of a plan to deliver papers to then-Vice President Mike Pence, falsely claiming that Trump won the battleground state that year.

The majority of the 10 Republicans told investigators that they had to sign the voter’s certificate indicating Trump’s victory only to preserve his legal options if a court changed the outcome of the election in Wisconsin, the complaint said.

The majority of voters told investigators they did not believe their signatures on voter certification would be submitted to Congress without a court ruling, the complaint said. The majority also said they did not agree to submit their signatures as if Trump had won without such a ruling, the complaint said.

Federal prosecutors investigating Trump’s conduct in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, said the fake voter scheme originated in Wisconsin.

Trump associates argued that no crime occurred. But a judge in August rejected their arguments to allow the case to go to a preliminary hearing on Monday.

Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but has struggled to overturn the defeat. He won the state in 2016 and 2024.

The state charges against Trump’s lawyers and his aides are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the voters were charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupes, settled a lawsuit against them seeking damages.