Trump’s ex-Wisconsin attorney seeks charge to be dropped, cites pardon

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In Brief

• Jim Troupis faces 11 felony forgery charges in Wisconsin.
• Troupis cites Trump pardon to dismiss conspiracy to commit forgery count.
• Motion requests trial venue change from Dane to Jefferson County.
• Attorney Joseph Bugni argues potential jury bias due to 2020 recount actions.

MADISON — President Donald Trump’s former campaign attorney is asking a Wisconsin judge to drop a felony forgery charge against him over his role in the president’s fake elector scheme, arguing he is protected by a Trump pardon.

At the same time, the former Trump attorney argues he can’t get a fair trial in Dane County, in part, because Dane County voters’ ballots would have been thrown out by an unsuccessful effort the attorney led to disqualify hundreds of thousands of ballots during a recount Trump paid for in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election result.

Jim Troupis, a former Dane County judge who represented Trump’s Wisconsin campaign during the aftermath of the 2020 election, faces 11 felony forgery charges in Wisconsin over his role in a scheme to have Republicans in battleground states pretend to be electors for Trump in an effort to persuade then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop the certification of Biden’s victory over Trump.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul in 2024 filed charges against Troupis and other architects of the so-called fake elector scheme.

Ahead of his June 16 arraignment on the charges, Troupis is asking a Dane County judge overseeing the case to dismiss one count of conspiracy to commit forgery because Trump pardoned Troupis in November for his actions related to the fake elector scheme.

Presidential pardons impact matters in federal court. Troupis and his attorney assert that a pardon should also apply to the state case against him in Wisconsin.

“… the State’s theory is that they tried to ‘sow chaos’ within that proceeding — the Electoral Count for President and Vice President — with that certificate. But that joint session was a federal proceeding. That means that he allegedly committed an ‘offense against the United States’ within the meaning of the Pardon Clause of the United States Constitution. And President Trump has chosen to pardon him,” Troupis’ attorneys argued in a motion filed Wednesday, June 9.

Troupis is also asking the judge to move the case to Jefferson County, arguing he won’t get a fair trial in Dane County due to ballots he sought to disqualify during the 2020 recount − which included his own and his wife’s.

“Here, the ‘victims’ will include, at the very least, all Dane County residents whose votes were challenged. That is so because jurors will be told, repeatedly, that Troupis tried to unlawfully throw out their votes, their family’s votes, their friend’s votes, their neighbor’s votes,” Troupis attorney Joseph Bugni wrote in the motion.

Bugni argued to move the trial to a county where the potential for jurors to be personally affected does not exist.

He also argued the case should be moved because of media coverage, including political cartoons and opinion columns about Troupis’ actions. He also cited statements by Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, various Dane County groups and a retired Dane County judge as evidence of a likely tainted jury pool.

“This case is headed to trial. No question. Neither side is going to blink. And when we get to trial, Troupis has the right to a fair and impartial jury,” Bugni wrote in the motion.

“To make sure that he has that, the jurors must be free of bias and contempt, they can’t be victims and they can’t identify with them. That, plus provocative and emotionally-charged pretrial publicity, necessitates a change of venue.”