MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Wisconsin prosecutors filed 10 additional felony charges Tuesday against two lawyers and an aide to President-elect Donald Trump, who advised Trump in 2020 as part of a scheme to file paperwork falsely claiming the Republican had won the battleground that year.
Jim Troupis, Trump’s lawyer in Wisconsin, Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who advised the campaign, and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of 2020 Election Day operations, all initially faced a single count of forgery in Wisconsin. These charges were filed in June.
But on Tuesday, two days before the three made their first court appearance, the Wisconsin Department of Justice filed 10 additional charges against each of them. The charges allege the use of forgery in an attempt to defraud each of the 10 Republican electors who voted for Trump that year.
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Each of the 11 charges carries the same maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Attorneys for each of the defendants did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
The state charges against Trump’s lawyers and aides are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the voters have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin voters, Chesebro and Troupis, have all settled a lawsuit filed against them in 2023.
There are pending charges related to the fake voter program in state and federal courts in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Georgia. Federal prosecutors, who are investigating Trump’s conduct in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, say the fake voter scheme originated in Wisconsin.
Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors will be sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to determine the outcome. Two states, Maine and Nebraska, allow their electoral votes to be divided among candidates.
The Wisconsin complaint details how Troupis, Chesebro and Roman created a document falsely claiming Trump had won Wisconsin’s ten Electoral College votes and then attempted to deliver it to then-Vice President Mike Pence.
In the amended complaint filed Tuesday, prosecutors said the majority of 10 voters told investigators they had to sign the voter certification, which showed Trump won only to preserve his legal options if a court overturned the election’s outcome in Wisconsin would change. A majority of voters told researchers they did not believe their voter certificate signatures would be submitted to Congress without a court ruling, the complaint said.
In addition, a majority of voters said they did not agree to have their signatures presented as if Trump had won without such a court ruling, the complaint said.
Troupis filed four motions to dismiss the charges against him prior to Thursday’s hearing and before the amended complaint was filed. He argues that gathering Republican electors and casting their ballots was done to preserve their legal options in case the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Trump’s favor in a lawsuit challenging the Wisconsin vote. No crime was committed as a result of this action and therefore the complaint should be dismissed, Troupis states.
In another motion to dismiss, he argues that federal law should take precedence in this case, and therefore such charges cannot legally be brought in state court.
In a third motion, Troupis argues that the case should be dismissed because facts showing that no crime had been committed were left out of the complaint. In a fourth motion, Troupis argues it should be dismissed because prosecution for election crimes can only be brought by the county’s attorney, not the state’s attorney general.
The charges in Wisconsin were filed by Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat. They were filed in June, five months before Trump carried Wisconsin away in November. He also won the state in 2016, but lost it in 2020.
The voter fraud efforts are at the center of a 2023 federal racketeering indictment filed against Trump, alleging he attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump is now seeking to have that case dismissed, arguing that state courts will have no jurisdiction over him when he returns to the White House next month.
Chesebro and Roman were among 18 people charged along with Trump in Georgia. Roman has pleaded not guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges. He has also pleaded not guilty to nine felony charges in Arizona related to that state’s fake voter program, including conspiracy, fraud and forgery.
Last year, Chesebro pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to file false documents after reaching a deal with Georgia prosecutors. He is now seeking to have the plea voided after a judge dismissed the charge to which he pleaded guilty in September.
Chesebro was one of four people who pleaded guilty in the Georgia case in the months after the indictment.
