2 Trump Aides Will Face Trial in Fake Elector Scheme

A Wisconsin judge ruled Monday there is enough evidence to proceed to trial in a felony forgery case against an attorney and an aide to President Trump for their role in the 2020 fake elector scheme. The charges relate to attempts by the former aides to present a slate of Republican electors to Congress falsely claiming that Trump had won Wisconsin that year even though he lost to Democrat Joe Biden, the AP reports. Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland ruled that there was probable cause to proceed with the 11 felony forgery charges against Jim Troupis, who was Trump's campaign attorney in Wisconsin, and Mike Roman, Trump's director of Election Day operations in 2020.

• Those charged claim they committed no crime and were just trying to keep their options alive in case a court ruled that Trump had actually won the state. "That's not a forgery," Troupis' defense attorney, Joe Bugni, said.
• But the judge said communication from the defendants showed their intent to present as legitimate a certificate awarding Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes to Trump, not a document to be accepted only if a court ruled that Trump won the state.
• The preliminary hearing of a third person charged, former Trump attorney Ken Chesebro, was postponed amid questions about what statements the man made to prosecutors that could be admitted in court. The judge said he wanted to hold a separate hearing on whether comments Chesebro made in an agreement with Wisconsin investigators were allowed to be admitted at trial.

• The Wisconsin charges, brought by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul's Department of Justice, allege that the three defrauded the 10 Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020. The state's only witness, a special agent with the state Department of Justice, detailed the allegations.
• Prosecutors contend Troupis, Chesebro, and Roman lied to the Republicans about how the certificate they signed would be used as part of a plan to submit paperwork to then-Vice President Mike Pence, falsely claiming that Trump had won the battleground state that year. A majority of the electors told investigators that they did not believe their signatures on the elector certificate would be submitted to Congress without a court ruling, the complaint said. Also, a majority said they did not consent to having their signatures presented as if Trump had won without such a court ruling, the complaint said.
• Lawrence Lessig, a professor at Harvard Law School, was the only person to testify for the defense. Lessig said that if a court ruled later that Trump had won Wisconsin, the state's 10 electoral votes could only have been awarded to him if a certificate was submitted on time signed by the Republican electors. "I don't see how anybody could fairly conclude that's fraudulent," he testified.
• The Wisconsin case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still active.