Sen. Johnson asks U.S. DOJ to get involved in fake electors case against Trump lawyer
MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- A U.S. Senator is calling for federal investigators to review the state criminal case against the lawyer who represented President Donald Trump in his effort to throw out hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin votes in 2020.
GOP Sen. Ron Johnson wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi Thursday asking for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to get involved in the case against Jim Troupis, who is one of three men charged in Wisconsin for their alleged role in trying to pass along a fake slate of GOP presidential electors after the 2020 election.
Johnson highlighted claims from Troupis' legal team that the Dane County judge presiding over the case, John Hyland, did not actually write a previous decision rejecting Troupis' motion to dismiss the case.
Instead, Troupis claims the decision was written by former Dane County judge Frank Remington. Troupis' lawyer, Joseph Bugni, maintained he's familiar with Hyland's writing from previous cases and claims Hyland did not write the August decision.
Remington was appointed to the court in 2011 by then-Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican.
Hyland has since said he did write the decision. Troupis is now asking for Hyland and every other Dane County judge to be taken off the case.
Johnson now wants federal investigators to take a look at whether Troupis can be guaranteed a fair trial.
"It is difficult to understand how Judge Hyland can make an impartial decision," Johnson wrote. "I respectfully request that the
Department of Justice review Mr. Troupis’ case to determine whether any wrongdoing has occurred."
Troupis, Kenneth Chesebro, a Wisconsin native who helped coordinate the fake elector plot across multiple states, and former Trump aide Mike Roman were charged in Wisconsin with forgery.
The defendants have said they were only collecting the list of electors in case courts overturned former President Joe Biden's victory in Wisconsin.
Pat Sobkowski, a constitutional law professor at Marquette University, said it was unusual to have a sitting U.S. Senate call for a federal investigation into a state criminal case involving a member of his political party whose charges are election-related.
"We're talking about state-level stuff here," Sobkowski said. "The primary body of law is Wisconsin state law that we're dealing with here."
Jeff Mandell, president of the left-leaning firm, Law Forward, said Troupis already has form of recourse within the legal system if he's convinced it'll be impossible to get a fair shake in Dane County.
"If they really think that their federal constitutional rights have been violated, they can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court," Mandell said. "That's different than trying to have the Attorney General of the United States come in and try to push around the state justice system here."
Law Forward was among multiple liberal groups that sued Troupis and Wisconsin's 10 fake GOP electors in 2022. Remington was the judge presiding over that case.
As a condition of the settlement in that case, Troupis released a trove of his communications records from the time around the 2020 election.
In a separate U.S. House review of the January 6 riot, investigators connected Johnson, himself, to efforts to bring slates of fake GOP electors to then-Vice President Mike Pence that day.
Text messages showed Johnson connecting Troupis with his chief of staff on the morning of January 6.
Johnson has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, telling CBS 58 in December 2023, "I didn't connect Jim. Jim Troupis called me up, asked if I could help deliver something to the vice president. That's all I knew. I had no idea."
A spokesperson for Troupis said he was unavailable for an interview Friday, Dec. 12, but passed along a statement.
"I am pleased that Senator Johnson recognizes the gravity of the misconduct by the Dane County Court," Troupis wrote. "It is long past time for the United States Department Justice to enter the proceedings and bring an end to Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul’s obvious political witch hunt".
The Wisconsin Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
On Thursday, Trump issued a pardon to Tina Peters, a Colorado election clerk convicted on state charges of elections tampering. Officials there have said they have no plans to recognize Trump's pardon.
Sobkowski said if the U.S. DOJ does insert itself into Troupis' case, it would bring the country into a new kind of legal territory.
"If this precedent is set," Sobkowski said. "Where the President of the United States, through his attorney general, can come in and help out their friends, then I think you may start to see those types of those reactions increase across Republican and Democratic administrations."