Efforts to overturn the 2020 election by organizing slates of alternative electors for President Donald Trump have begun in the swing state of Wisconsin. Now the frantic effort to bring these organizers to justice may depend on what happens there.
Three men accused of the so-called “fraudulent voter” plan appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing in the case, which is one of the few endangered cases still ongoing.
Trump voters played a central role in the campaign's attempt on January 6, 2021, to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as the winner of the 2020 election. Trump's lawyers tried to force Vice President Mike Pence to delay the congressional vote count on the grounds that several states, including Wisconsin, had submitted “double lists” of voters.
Why did we write this
Criminal cases against people accused of planning a “fraudulent voter” scheme to keep President Donald Trump in power after his 2020 election defeat have largely stalled. In Wisconsin, a case involving three key figures could go to trial.
These electors represent each state's actual votes for president. If Mr. Pence, who presides over the congressional count, had agreed to Mr. Trump's demand to count alternative slates or let Congress determine the winner, Mr. Trump could have remained in office even though Mr. Biden received more votes. After Mr Pence refused, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
Nearly five years later, no campaign managers or advisers have been prosecuted for organizing voter fraud in the seven battleground states. A court in Georgia recently concluded a criminal case in which Trump and 18 other defendants were charged in August 2023 with racketeering and other offenses. In September A judge in Michigan dismissed the case. against 15 Republicans charged with fraud for certifying Trump as the 2020 winner. Prosecutions in other states have stalled or faced setbacks.
That makes Wisconsin a potential testing ground for responsibility for what has been seen as a national crisis of democratic legitimacy that continues to cast a shadow over the way elections are conducted in America.
Last year, Wisconsin indicted three Trump allies in a fraudulent election scheme. Two, James Troupi and Kenneth Chesebrough, were Trump campaign lawyers; the third, Michael Roman, was Trump's national director of Election Day operations. Each of them faces 11 counts of forgery, each of which carries a prison sentence.
These three were among 77 people were pardoned last month Mr. Trump for all actions related to this scheme and “their efforts to expose voting fraud and vulnerabilities in the 2020 Presidential Election.” The pardon—largely symbolic because no one faces federal charges—but does not apply to state courts. (Mr. Trump also pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,500 people charged in the Jan. 6 attack.)
None of the 10 fraudulent electors who secretly met at the Wisconsin Statehouse on December 14, 2020, as the state's legal voters cast their ballots for Mr. Biden were charged. Instead, Wisconsin prosecutors focused on the people who masterminded the strategy to rig the election.
“It was these Wisconsin lawyers who came up with the whole scheme and exported it to the rest of the country,” says Jeff Mundell, co-founder of Law Forward, a left-leaning law firm in Madison, Wisconsin.
In 2023, Wisconsin's fraudulent voters settled a civil lawsuit brought by Law Forward, admitting their role in the scheme. Mr. Troupi, a retired judge who served as Mr. Trump's lawyer in Wisconsin, and Mr. Chesebro, New York lawyer who has since been disbarredboth were part of the settlement. It included the release of emails, text messages and notes. is a detailed account of how Chesebro's legal theory of alternative voters was enthusiastically adopted by Troupi and passed on to the Trump campaign. Mr. Chesebro then provided templates for other states to prepare Mr. Trump's voter rolls.
“They knew what they were doing and now they're trying to avoid consequences,” Mr. Mundell said, referring to defense motions to dismiss the case.
Joseph Bunyi, Mr. Troupi's lawyer, declined to comment on the criminal charges. Lawyers for Mr. Chesebro and Mr. Roman did not respond to email requests for comment.
Mr. Troupi criticized Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul after his arraignment, telling reporters at the courthouse that “this is a political matter. It has nothing to do with the law.” He accused Mr. Kaul, a Democrat first elected in 2019, of damaging the cause of justice.
Last month he talked about Steve Bannon's show “War Room” that Democrats wanted to put him on trial to reopen the “Jack Smith case,” referring to the federal indictment against Mr. Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election results, which was overturned after the 2024 election. “They're going to try the Jack Smith case in Dane County, Wisconsin next summer on live television,” he said.
The scheme was a “fantasy” in Wisconsin
Mr. Troupi and others involved in the scheme argue that Democrats did the same thing in 1960 when there was uncertainty about Hawaii's presidential electors. Of the two slates of electors presented to Congress, the votes ultimately went to John F. Kennedy.
But this analogy doesn't hold water, says Michael Rosin: independent legal scholar who studied the 1960 election. At the time, a recount was underway in Hawaii, while a recount had already been conducted in Wisconsin, confirming Biden's narrow victory. Voters in Hawaii met openly in the same room with the state's governor, who certified both sets of documents.
“In 1960, it was very important for the new state of Hawaii to get it right,” he says.
Republican electors in Wisconsin could use legal language that would make their votes contingent on the election results being reviewed by the Supreme Court, he said. But their list would still not be certified as alternative voters, as was the case in Hawaii in 1960.
“It was just a fantasy on Chesebro's part that they could change the path in Wisconsin and other places,” Mr. Rosin said.
Mr. Chesebro was also among those charged in an election interference case in Georgia. He pleaded guilty in October 2023 on one charge and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. By then, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had become a national political figure who seemed poised to bring Trump to trial. Mr. Chesebro's inside knowledge of a fraudulent election scheme also being prosecuted in Georgia made him an important potential witness.
But a few months after that, Ms. Willis suffered a spectacular fall. it turned out that she hired a special prosecutor for this case with whom she was romantically involved. She was removed from the case in December last year. The judge concluded the case last month. after Ms. Willis' successor said it was not possible to continue the case because Mr. Trump's presidency would delay any trial for years, depriving the accused of their right to a speedy trial.
“The legal issue is really secondary to the practical issues,” says Anthony Michael Kreis, an assistant professor of law at Georgia State University who followed the case.
Criminal charges against Mr. Trump in Georgia, where he urged the state's top 2020 election official to “find” enough votes to change the result. fueled his political comeback in 2024.. Supporters rallied to defend him against what he called “the law” from Democratic prosecutors, and his campaign swept away opponents in the Republican primary. His campaign sold branded merchandise with Trump's photo from Fulton County.
“A Moment of Potential Reconciliation”
The failure of the Georgia case is unfortunate, and not just because justice was not done, Professor Kreis said. He says a lawsuit would serve a different purpose: to provide clarity in an election that Trump falsely claimed he won.
“Essentially, in my opinion, this was a moment of potential reconciliation where people were able to see first-hand that there was a group of people who were lying to the American public to keep themselves in power,” he says.
In 2022, Congress amended the Election Count Act. clarify the ceremonial role of the vice president in certifying votes in Congress.
After the 2028 presidential election, the process will be led by Vice President J.D. Vance, who is expected to run for the GOP nomination. Mr. Vance said last year that if he were Mr. Pence, he would not have certified the 2020 election results and that the states were to submit “several lists” for which Congress was to “struggle.”
Mr. Mundell says he doesn't expect a future presidential candidate to try another fraudulent election scheme. But he argues it remains important to hold Wisconsin's 2020 leaders accountable after Mr. Trump announced preemptive federal pardons.
“If the idea is 'no harm, no offense' … we'll create incentives for something more extreme next time,” he says.
