Wisconsin’s attorney general, Josh Kaul, filed felony forgery charges Tuesday against one of former President Donald Trump’s aides and two attorneys who worked on the scheme to have fake electors overturn the 2020 election.
The charges against the three men — Kenneth Chesebro, Jim Troupis, and Michael Roman — are classified as class H felonies, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and up to six years in prison.
State prosecutors first filed the charges against anyone who appeared to be involved in the scheme, wherein 10 Wisconsin Republicans met in the state capitol and signed paperwork falsely claiming to be legitimate electors for Trump after Biden won.
Chesebro orchestrated the overall scheme, the Guardian reported. He emailed Troupis, the former judge who represented Trump in Wisconsin during the 2020 election, five days after the election to discuss overturning Biden’s 21,000 vote victory in Wisconsin. Over the next few months, the two developed the fake electors scheme.
Later, Chesebro worked with Roman, Trump's former director of election day operations, who delivered the fake elector paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressman’s staffer, aiming for it to reach Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump was able to seek a recount in Dane and Milwaukee counties only to confirm Biden’s win, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The criminal complaint filed against Chesebro and Roman detailed a text exchange between the two about changing the language in their fake elector certificates to be more conditional than the ones that were ultimately signed by the fraudulent electors. The text messages reveal that Roman disagreed with Chesebro on the changes, which were intended to limit their legal liability, and when the attorney offered to help out with the draft, Roman simply wrote: "fuck these guys."
Chesebro pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme in a different case in Georgia earlier this year. He is also believed to be one of the unidentified co-conspirators mentioned by special counsel Jack Smith in his federal election interference indictment of Donald Trump last year.
Roman still faces charges in Georgia and is a defendant in an Arizona fake elector case that also involves Chesebro. Prosecutors in Michigan and Nevada have also brought up charges against Trump's fake electors.
