Troupis Decries Left's Unrelenting Political Lawfare Campaign in Wisconsin

Jim Troupis laid out his defense following an initial appearance in Dane County Court on Thursday accusing Attorney General Josh Kaul of waging a lawfare campaign against conservatives in Wisconsin.

“This is a political case. This has nothing to do with the law,” Troupis told reporters outside the courtroom.

Kaul charged Troupis with 11 felony counts of fraud for his role in defending Donald Trump after the 2020 election. Troupis was involved in coordinating an alternate slate of Republican electors, who cast the state’s 10 electoral votes in December 2020 contingent on the outcome of the election in Wisconsin, which was still be fought out in the courts. The votes never became valid, because the state supreme court later ruled that Biden had won the state. Ever since then, the left has characterized those alternate electors as “fake electors” and has demanded their prosecution. Kaul has been happy to oblige them.

However, Troupis says at the time four years ago, Kaul agreed in writing that it was both legal and appropriate for Republicans to select alternate electors and cast the contingent votes.

“Attorney General Josh Kaul was told about our plan and he approved it. He notified the Wisconsin Election Commission in an email that it was going to occur,” Troupis said. “No one objected.”

“Again in 2022, the Wisconsin Attorney General explicitly wrote that the use of alternate electors was legally correct and use of alternate electors was absolutely consistent with all prior law and there was no evidence of forgery or fraud.”

Former Governor Scott McCallum was on hand to support Troupis. He said the legal attacks against Troupis are part of a troubling trend of political attacks against conservatives throughout Wisconsin and the country.

“We’ve seen this in other cases in Wisconsin. We saw Walker undergo it, I underwent it in the John Doe when I was Lieutenant Governor and they wouldn’t even tell me what I was going to be charged with. Turns out it was nothing,” McCallum said. “But it’s an awful abuse of power.”

Kaul is also conducting a politically motivated investigation against Wausau Mayor Doug Diny for moving an unsecure ballot drop box into city hall during the 2024 fall election. Kaul sent a state SWAT team to Diny’s home, seizing personal electronic devices.

Historically, the left has shown no restraint in conducting police raids on their political opponents for allegedly committing non-violent crimes. In 2013, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm conducted two John Doe investigations into Gov. Walker’s campaign activities. Police in multiple counties conduct pre-dawn SWAT team raids on suspects. Police seized their personal property and the courts issued them gag orders, so they couldn’t even complain about it. The investigations ultimately went nowhere, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court put a stop to it in 2015 ruling that the investigators had violated the suspects First Amendment Rights to Free Speech. Chisholm and his partners faced no repercussions for that abuse of power, and subsequently the left continues to wage lawfare in Wisconsin.

“[Democracy is] not only under threat, we’re seeing it occur today,” McCallum stated. “This type of thing is an abuse of power. And if you can do this to attorneys and people who understand the law, you can imagine how ordinary citizens feel.”

Troupis is confident that, like other victims of lawfare in Wisconsin, he will prevail in the current case against him.