Ex-Trump attorney kicked off judicial committee for role in fake elector scheme

The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended former Trump attorney James Troupis from its Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee on Tuesday.

Troupis, who also previously served as a Dane County Circuit Court judge, was charged with felony forgery for his role in planning the scheme to have a group of Republicans cast false Electoral College votes for Trump after the 2020 election.

Despite his role in the false elector scheme, Troupis was reappointed to the advisory committee by the Court’s then-conservative majority in March 2023. The committee, which consists of nine members — six judges, one court commissioner, one attorney and one member of the public — gives opinions and advice on judges’ compliance with the state code of judicial conduct.

The appointment to a second three-year term was a month before the Supreme Court election in which Janet Protasiewicz was elected, shifting the ideological swing of the Court. The four conservatives appointed Troupis to the committee despite the objections from the three liberal justices on the Court at the time.

Last week, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced that Troupis and two other former Trump associates had been charged with felonies for their role in planning the false elector scheme. The scheme was then outsourced to a number of other states and played a major role in the events that led to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Troupis also served as the attorney for the Trump campaign in the recount it requested in Dane and Milwaukee counties and subsequent attempt to have thousands of absentee ballots that were cast from those largely Democratic counties thrown out, in an attempt to overturn the results of the election.