On the eve of former Trump Campaign lawyer Jim Troupis’s initial criminal court appearance, Law Forward has filed a formal grievance with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR), calling for an investigation of his conduct devising, implementing, and defending the fake-elector scheme following the 2020 Presidential election.

OLR is the agency of the Wisconsin Supreme Court charged with investigating and prosecuting violations of the ethical rules that bind lawyers and judges. Our grievance shows how Troupis violated the Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys by advancing falsehoods, enabling fraud, and undermining the rule of law.

Our democracy depends on attorneys adhering to their ethical obligations, and this grievance seeks to hold Troupis accountable and ensure that such abuses of the legal profession are never repeated.

 

The fraudulent elector scheme, developed and advanced by Troupis and his associate, Ken Chesebro, between November 2020 and February 2021, was part of a coordinated effort to subvert the will of the voters in Wisconsin and other states. Despite the certified election results affirming Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, these attorneys ensured Republican electors in Wisconsin and six other states cast false electoral votes for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

Troupis, a seasoned attorney and former Dane County Circuit Court judge, leveraged his legal expertise in leading the Trump Campaign’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Despite his prior experience with and knowledge of professional ethics, Troupis not only actively participated in the scheme to submit fraudulent electoral votes but also supervised the work of attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who was instrumental in crafting and implementing the plan. Since Chesebro is not licensed to practice law in Wisconsin, Troupis bore direct responsibility for ensuring Chesebro’s actions adhered to Wisconsin’s rules of professional conduct. As the grievance details, Troupis failed to do this, again and again.

Troupis was the quarterback in a calculated scheme to overturn a presidential election—an extraordinary abuse of legal expertise aimed at undermining our democracy.

The grievance asks the OLR to investigate Troupis’s conduct and file a disciplinary complaint to address violations, including dishonesty, deceit, and improper influence, which breach the core principles of Wisconsin’s professional ethics rules.