Wisconsin attorney general charges three former Trump associates in plot to overturn 2020 election | Wisconsin
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Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed charges Tuesday against three men who played key roles in the appointment effort fake voters in the state as part of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.
Kenneth Chesebro, Jim Trupis and Michael Roman were each charged with one felony count of forgery, according to court documents. The crime is a Class H felony, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and up to six years in prison.
Chesebro was the architect of the fake election plan. Five days after the election, he emailed Troupis, a retired judge who led the Trump campaign’s legal efforts in Wisconsin, to consider overturning Joe Biden’s Wisconsin victory and electorate Trump. The two are developing the scheme over the next few months. Chesebro would later work with Roman to coordinate efforts between states and bring the list of fraudulent voters to Washington.
Chesebro pleaded guilty for conspiring to file false documents about his role in the scheme in a separate case in Georgia earlier this year. Roman faces charges in Georgia and is also a defendant in a case in Arizona.
This is the first time Troupis, who participates in a judicial ethics committee in Wisconsin, has been charged.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, released a brief statement praising the charges. “Okay,” he said.
The Wisconsin complaint alleges how Chezebrough, Trupis and Roman — a Trump campaign aide — coordinated the preparation of false voter IDs to be signed by Republicans in the swing state for Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. The men discussed the language to be used on the fake voter IDs, considering adding language to qualify that the unofficial voter list is a contingent in the event that somehow the election results in these key swing states are changed before the election is certified.
The complaint notes that in Wisconsin, the fake voter documents did not contain “any qualifying language” and presented Trump-Pence voters as duly elected.
On December 14th, the day the fake Wisconsin electors gathered, Chesebro celebrated in messages to Trupis and Roman: “The WI *real* electors meeting is ready!!!”
Even as Trump’s list of fake voters in Wisconsin turned in their voter IDs, their chances of overturning the results of the 2020 election looked slimmer. In a narrow 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Dec. 14 dismissed Trump’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the election, accusing the campaign of “challenging the rules adopted before the season.”
Chesebro and Troupis were not ready to give up.
In the days after Trump’s Wisconsin electors met to present their unofficial credentials, the two men flew to Washington to meet with Trump.
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On 17 December Chesebro admitted in a message to Roman that the scheme seemed “less plausible”. Still, he argued, the Election Counting Act could be “weaponized” to secure Trump the election.
The charges in Wisconsin come after prosecutors in four other states — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Michigan — filed criminal charges against those involved in the fraudulent election conspiracy.
Unlike his counterpart in other states, Kaul did not press charges against the fake voters themselves. Earlier this year, Wisconsin’s 10 fraudulent electors reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit in which they agreed never again to serve as presidential electors in an election involving Trump. They also acknowledged Biden’s victory.
The charges come after Trump successfully maneuvered to delay the two criminal cases he faces for tampering with the 2020 election until after November.
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