MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss as requested by President Donald Trump’s former lawyer who faces a felony fraud case related to the 2020 election in the battleground state.
The judge also refused to cancel a preliminary hearing Monday for Trump’s former lawyer, who also previously worked as a judge in the same county where he is being prosecuted, and two other former Trump associates.
The three former Trump aides face 11 felony charges each in connection with their roles in the 2020 voter fraud scheme. They are: Jim Troupis, who was Trump’s lawyer in Wisconsin in the 2020 election; Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer who advised the Trump campaign; and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day 2020 operations.
Troupis, along with the other two defendants, argued in a motion filed Monday that all the judges in Dane County were biased against him. Troupis was a county judge for one year from 2015 to 2016.
He also alleged that the judge hearing his case, Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland, had asked for help from a retired judge in writing an August order that refused to dismiss the case against him.
Troupis argued in the motion that the retired judge who “carries a personal animus” toward Troupis from their time together on the bench actually wrote the order. Troupis requested an evidentiary hearing in another county.
He included an expert writing style analysis comparing the order to the writing style of retired Dane County Judge Frank Remington. Troupis’ attorney also attached a November 25 letter he wrote to Hyland in which he claimed that other attorneys told him that Remington actually wrote the August order because the writing style matched Remington’s in a civil case they litigated before him.
Hyland rejected those arguments and Troupis’ request to move the case to another county.
“The Court is satisfied that no other person the assigned staff attorney and I had a hand in drafting or editing the decision that this Court signed and entered,” Hyland wrote.
Hyland also wrote that he had “no animus or personal prejudice towards any of the litigants” and was satisfied that he could hear the case fairly. He refused to step down as requested.
Hyland also said that Troupis did not present any evidence to support his claim that every other judge in the country was biased against him and therefore cannot hear the case fairly.
Troupis’ attorney, Joe Bugni, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Troupis, Chesebro and Roman each face 11 felony counts for allegedly using forgery in an attempt to deceive each of the 10 Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020 as part of a plan to submit paperwork falsely claiming the Republican had won the battleground state that year.
Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but fought to overturn the loss. He won the state in both 2016 and 2024.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is prosecuting the case, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The state charges against Trump’s lawyers and aides are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors were charged. The 10 electors of Wisconsin, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit brought against them in 2023.
Federal prosecutors investigating Trump’s conduct related to the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot, said the fraudulent voter scheme originated in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin complaint details how Troupis, Chesebro and Roman created a document that falsely said Trump won all 10 of Wisconsin’s Electoral College votes and then tried to deliver the document to then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump’s associates argued that no crime had occurred. But the judge in August rejected their arguments and allowed the case to proceed.
A judge threw out a similar case in Michigan in September. And last year, a special prosecutor dropped a federal case alleging that Trump conspired to overthrow the 2020 election. A Georgia election interference case was dropped by prosecutors earlier last month, and another similar case is pending in Nevada.
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Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report.