Former Aides to Appear at WI Hearing   12/15 06:05

   

   MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Two former attorneys and an aide who all worked on 
President Donald Trump's 2020 campaign were scheduled to appear Monday for a 
preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake 
elector scheme.

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

   The Wisconsin case was filed a year ago but has been tied up as the Trump 
aides have fought, unsuccessfully so far, to have the charges dismissed.

   The hearing on Monday comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of 
the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down 
in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who was joined by the 
other two defendants in his motion, alleged that the judge did not write a 
previous order issued in August declining to dismiss the case. Instead, he 
accused the father of the judge's law clerk, who was a retired judge, of 
actually writing the opinion.

   Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was 
charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against 
him and he can't get a fair trial.

   Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland said he and a staff attorney alone 
wrote the order. Hyland also said that Troupis presented no evidence to back up 
his claims of bias and refused to step down or delay the hearing.

   Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson asked the U.S. Department of Justice to 
investigate the allegations.

   The same judge will determine at Monday's hearing whether there's enough 
evidence to proceed with the charges against the three.

   The former Trump aides face 11 felony charges each in relation to their 
roles in the 2020 fake elector scheme. In addition to Troupis, the other 
defendants are Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised Trump's campaign; and 
Mike Roman, Trump's director of Election Day operations in 2020.

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

   Prosecutors contend the three lied to the Republicans about how the 
certificate they signed would be used as part of a plan to submit paperwork to 
then-Vice President Mike Pence falsely claiming that Trump had won the 
battleground state that year.

   The complaint said a majority of the 10 Republicans told investigators that 
they were needed to sign the elector certificate indicating that Trump had won 
only to preserve his legal options if a court changed the outcome of the 
election in Wisconsin.

   A majority of the electors told investigators that they did not believe 
their signatures on the elector certificate would be submitted to Congress 
without a court ruling, the complaint said. Also, a majority said they did not 
consent to having their signatures presented as if Trump had won without such a 
court ruling, the complaint said.

   Federal prosecutors who investigated Trump's conduct related to the Jan. 6, 
2021, U.S. Capitol riot, said the fake electors scheme originated in Wisconsin.

   The Trump associates have argued that no crime took place. But the judge in 
August rejected their arguments in allowing the case to proceed to Monday's 
preliminary hearing.

   Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but fought to have the defeat overturned. He 
won the state in both 2016 and 2024.

   The state charges against the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in 
Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, 
Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them 
seeking damages.