Wisconsin Supreme Court reappoints Trump lawyer to judicial conduct committee

The Wisconsin Supreme Court reappointed attorney Jim Troupis to the state’s Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee. Troupis was heavily involved in the effort by state Republicans to cast false Electoral College votes for former President Donald Trump after his 2020 election loss. 

Troupis, a former Dane County judge, also represented Trump in his lawsuit seeking to have the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturn the results of the election by throwing out hundreds of thousands of absentee votes cast in Dane and Milwaukee counties. In December 2020, Troupis was also involved in a lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the election results. 

Troupis was reappointed by the court’s four conservative justices, Rebecca Bradley, Brian Hagedorn, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler. The court’s three liberals dissented from the decision. The reappointment was announced Thursday.

In a statement, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesperson Joe Oslund said the decision was a sign that the court’s partisan leaning needs to be changed in the April Supreme Court election.

“Jim Troupis was an eager collaborator in Donald Trump’s failed fake elector plot to overturn the results of Wisconsin’s 2020 election, and the notion that he would be reappointed to a committee responsible for advising judges on their conduct as officers of the court is laughable,” Oslund said. “By reappointing Jim Troupis, the Supreme Court’s far-right majority has again kowtowed to the extreme partisan politics of Trump’s GOP, and it’s critical we restore fairness and common-sense on April 4th by electing Judge Janet Protasiewicz.”

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. Members of the committee serve three-year terms and can serve a maximum of two terms. Troupis has already served his first term on the committee. 

Troupis was involved in the earliest days with the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the results of the election, which numerous audits, lawsuits, recounts and reviews have affirmed was won by President Joe Biden. A memo sent by Trump campaign attorney Kenneth Cheseboro to Troupis outlined the fake elector strategy that would go on to be used in Wisconsin and several other states in an attempt to cast doubt on the results and have former Vice President Mike Pence declare Trump the winner when Electoral College votes were counted by Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. 

“It may seem odd that the electors pledged to Trump and Pence might meet and cast their votes on December 14 even if, at that juncture, the Trump-Pence ticket is behind in the vote count, and no certificate of election has been issued in favor of Trump and Pence,” Chesebro wrote. “However, a fair reading of the federal statutes suggests that this is a reasonable course of action.”

Troupis then helped arrange a meeting of 10 Republican officials in Wisconsin on Dec. 14, 2020 to cast the false Electoral College votes at the same time the elected Democratic field of electors were meeting.