MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday refused to step aside as requested by President Donald Trump’s former attorney who faces felony forgery case related to the 2020 election in the battleground state.
The judge also refused to cancel a Monday preliminary hearing for Trump’s former attorney, 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 relation to their roles in the 2020 fake elector scheme. They are: Jim Troupis, who was Trump’s attorney in Wisconsin in the 2020 election; Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised Trump’s campaign; and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020.
Troupis, joined by the other two defendants, argued in a motion filed Monday that all of the judges in Dane County were biased against him. Troupis was a judge in the county for one year from 2015 to 2016.
He also alleged that the judge hearing his case, Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland, had solicited help from a retired judge in writing an August order refusing to dismiss the case against him.
Troupis argued in the motion that the retired judge who “carries personal animus” toward Troupis from their time together on the bench actually wrote the order. Troupis asked for an evidentiary hearing in another county.
He included an expert analysis of the writing style that compares the order to the writing style of retired Dane County Judge Frank Remington. Troupis’ attorney also attached a Nov. 25 letter he wrote to Hyland claiming 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’ call for moving the case to another county.
“The Court is satisfied that no person other the assigned staff attorney and I had a hand in drafting or editing the decision which this Court signed and entered,” Hyland wrote.
Hyland also wrote that he had “no personal animus or prejudice toward any of the litigants” and was satisfied that he could fairly hear the case. He declined to step aside as requested.
Hyland also said that Troupis presented no evidence to support his claim that every other judge in the country was prejudiced against him and therefore can’t fairly hear the case.
Troupis’ attorney, Joe Bugni, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Troupis, Chesebro and Roman each face 11 felony charges for allegedly using forgery in an attempt to defraud each of the 10 Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020 as part of a plan to submit paperwork falsely claiming that the Republican had won the battleground state that year.
Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but fought to have the defeat overturned. 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 the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them in 2023.
Federal prosecutors who investigated Trump’s conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, said the fake electors scheme originated in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin complaint details how Troupis, Chesebro and Roman created a document that falsely said Trump had won Wisconsin’s 10 Electoral College votes and then attempted to deliver the document to then-Vice President Mike Pence.
The Trump associates have argued that no crime took place. But the judge in August rejected their arguments in allowing 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 Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. A Georgia election interference case was dropped by prosecutors earlier last month, and another similar case remains in Nevada.
