Wisconsin prosecutors have filed 10 additional felony charges against two attorneys and a top aide to President-elect Donald Trump for their alleged roles in submitting fraudulent elector documents during the 2020 presidential election.
Jim Troupis, Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin; Kenneth Chesebro, a legal advisor to the campaign; and Mike Roman, Trump’s 2020 Election Day operations director, now face a total of 11 felony counts each. The new charges, filed Tuesday by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, accuse the trio of using forgery to defraud the state’s 10 Republican electors who signed certificates falsely claiming Trump had won Wisconsin’s 10 Electoral College votes.
Each charge carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The amended complaint states that most of the electors believed their signatures were intended to preserve Trump’s legal options should the courts rule in his favor, not to be submitted to Congress as official results. The electors said they did not consent to their signatures being used without such a court ruling.
Troupis has filed multiple motions to dismiss the case, arguing that the electors’ meeting was a lawful attempt to preserve legal options, federal law should take precedence over state charges, and the Wisconsin Attorney General lacks the authority to prosecute election-related crimes.
The charges against the attorneys and aide are part of a broader investigation into the “fake elector” scheme, which federal prosecutors say originated in Wisconsin and was integral to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Similar cases are ongoing in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Georgia.
In Georgia, Chesebro and Roman were previously indicted alongside Trump. While Roman has pleaded not guilty, Chesebro initially reached a plea deal but is now seeking to have it invalidated.
