MADISON - Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul on Tuesday filed felony forgery charges against an aide and two attorneys who worked for former President Donald Trump in 2020 for their part in designing and executing a plan to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election by submitting false slates of electors for Trump.
More:Here are the 10 people who participated in Wisconsin's fake elector scheme in 2020
The charges are the first to be filed by state prosecutors against anyone involved in the scheme that involved 10 Wisconsin Republicans meeting in the state Capitol in December 2020 to sign paperwork falsely claiming to be electors for Trump, despite Trump's loss to Biden.
Kaul filed the charges in Dane County Circuit Court against Kenneth Chesebro, a Wisconsin native and lead architect of the 2020 fake elector plan; former Dane County Judge Jim Troupis, who represented Trump in Wisconsin during the 2020 election; and Mike Roman, a former Trump aide who allegedly delivered Wisconsin's slate of false elector paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressman's staffer in order to get them to Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.
In a press conference outside of the state Capitol on Tuesday, Kaul declined to answer questions about whether he was considering or ruling out charges against the 10 Wisconsin Republicans who signed the paperwork falsely claiming to be electors for Trump.
"I'm not going to comment on specific individuals but what I can say is that this is an ongoing investigation and our decisions are going to be based on those facts and what the best interests of justice show," Kaul said.
Biden beat Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. Trump sought recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties, which confirmed Biden's win. Trump sued and the state Supreme Courtupheld the resultson a 4-3 vote on Dec. 14, 2020.
Less than an hour later, Democrats met in the state Capitol to cast the state's 10 electoral votes for Biden.
At the same time, the Republican fake electorsgathered in another part of the Capitolto fill out paperwork claiming Trump had won. They submitted their filingsto Congress, the National Archives, a federal judge and then-Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette. Chesebro was in the room during the meeting.
At the time, the fake electors said they held the meeting to ensure the state's electoral votes were cast for Trump if a court later determined he was the true winner of the state.
Kaul charged Chesebro, Roman and Troupis with intent to forge a "'Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Wisconsin,' knowing it to have been thus falsely made or altered, with one or more of the parties to the conspiracy doing an act to effect the objective of the conspiracy.”
“Between at least as early as on or about November 17, 2020, and continuing through on or about January 6, 2021, in Dane County, State of Wisconsin, and elsewhere, the above-named defendants, together with other individuals not charged in this complaint, agreed or combined with another with the intent to commit and for the purpose of committing the crime of uttering as genuine a forged writing or object," Kaul wrote in the complaint.
They were charged in violation of statutes that criminalize the forgery of public records or legal documents.
The complaint, filed by Wisconsin Department of Justice special agent Mary Van Schoyck, relied on evidence from the fall of 2020 through delivery of the unappointed elector certificate on Jan. 6, 2021, when Chesebro and Troupis organized a plan to cast fake electoral votes.
In Dec. 12, 2020 texts, Chesebro and Roman sent text messages about the language in the false elector certificates to be signed by Pence, in which Roman said, “F--k these guys.”
Chesebro in a message to Roman and an unidentified Republican on Dec. 16 acknowledged "things might have been different if we'd won Wisconsin" and suggested the Trump campaign should "weaponize the Electoral Count Act" to put Biden "in a no-win situation."
Chesebro spelled out the plan in a memo dated Nov. 18, 2020 — the same day Trump asked for recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties.
Chesebro sent the memo to Troupis. It's unclear whether Chesebro worked for Trump or someone else.Chesebro sent a second memo on the matter on Dec. 9, 2020, after state officials certified Biden as the victor in Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin, the group of 10 Republicans who signed the paperwork included then-Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Andrew Hitt and Wisconsin Elections Commissioner Bob Spindell.
In December, the group of false electors settled a civil lawsuit filed by the real Biden electors against them over their role in the scheme. As part of the settlement, the false Trump electors acknowledged their actions were part of an attempt to overturn an election.
According to communication released by Chesebro and Troupis as part of the lawsuit, Roman was in contact with Troupis on Jan. 6, 2021 and U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson's chief of staff in order to pass along the slates of Wisconsin's false electors to Pence, who ultimately rejected the offer.
Court records show Chesebro, Troupis and Roman are due in court on Sept. 19.
In a one word statement on the charges, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said: "Good."
Johnson called the charges "outrageous."
"Now Democrats are weaponizing Wisconsin’s judiciary. Apparently conservative lawyers advising clients is illegal under Democrat tyranny. Democrats are turning America into a banana republic," Johnson said in a post on the social media platform X.
More:Court records from Trump attorneys Troupis and Chesebro reveal depth of fake elector scheme
Rachel Hale and Lawrence Andrea of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
