Wisconsin judge rules Trump aides must face trial in 2020 fake elector scheme

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin judge ruled Monday there is enough evidence to proceed to trial in a felony forgery case against an attorney and an aide to President Donald Trump for their role in the 2020 fake elector scheme.

The charges relate to attempts by the former aides to present a slate of Republican electors to Congress falsely claiming that Trump had won Wisconsin that year even though he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

The Wisconsin case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.

Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland ruled that there was probable cause to proceed with the 11 felony forgery charges against Jim Troupis, who was Trump’s campaign attorney in Wisconsin, and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020.

Those charged claim they committed no crime and were just trying to keep their options alive in case a court ruled that Trump had actually won the state.

“That’s not a forgery,” Troupis’s defense attorney Joe Bugni said.

But the judge said communication from the defendants showed their intent to present as legitimate a certificate awarding Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes to Trump, not a document to be accepted only if a court ruled that Trump won the state.

The preliminary hearing of a third person charged, former Trump attorney Ken Chesebro, was postponed amid questions about what statements the man made to prosecutors that could be admitted in court.

The judge said he wanted to hold a separate hearing on whether comments Chesebro made in an agreement with Wisconsin investigators were allowed to be admitted at trial.

Chesebro made his comments to investigators voluntarily and there was no immunity agreement given to him in exchange for talking, said Assistant Wisconsin Attorney General Adrienne Blais.

She called the move by Chesebro’s attorney to not allow his comments at the preliminary hearing “a clear sandbag.”

The Wisconsin charges, brought by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul’s Department of Justice, allege that the three defrauded the 10 Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.

The state’s only witness, a special agent with the state Department of Justice, detailed the allegations.

Prosecutors contend Troupis, Chesebro and Roman lied to the Republicans about how the certificate they signed would be used as part of a plan to submit paperwork to then-Vice President Mike Pence, falsely claiming that Trump had won the battleground state that year.

A majority of the electors told investigators that they did not believe their signatures on the elector certificate would be submitted to Congress without a court ruling, the complaint said. Also, a majority said they did not consent to having their signatures presented as if Trump had won without such a court ruling, the complaint said.

Lawrence Lessig, law professor at Harvard Law School, was the only person to testify for the defense.

Lessig said that if a court ruled later that Trump had won Wisconsin, the state’s 10 electoral votes could only have been awarded to him if a certificate was submitted on time signed by the Republican electors.

“I don’t see how anybody could fairly conclude that’s fraudulent,” he testified.

Monday’s hearing came a week after Troupis alleged misconduct by the judge and tried unsuccessfully to get him to step down and move the case to another county. Troupis alleged that the judge did not write a previous order issued in August declining to dismiss the case. Instead, he accused the father of the judge’s law clerk, a retired judge, of actually writing the opinion.

Hyland said he and a staff attorney alone wrote the order. Hyland also said Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he is now being prosecuted, presented no evidence to back up his claims of bias.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the allegations.

The state charges against the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them seeking damages.

This story has been corrected to show that the attorneys who are charged formerly worked on Trump’s campaign, but are still practicing attorneys.

FILE - Jim Troupis reads a statement after his court appearance outside a Dane County courtroom Dec. 12, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

An aspiring neurosurgeon and a student leader of Brown University's campus Republicans were in a study group preparing for an economics final, with the end of the semester in sight.

But the lives of MukhammadAziz Umurzokov and Ella Cook were cut short Saturday when a gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building. Nine others were wounded before the gunman fled. Investigators were still searching for him Monday.

As questions swirled about the gunman's motives and how he managed to walk away after the attack, relatives and friends of Umurzokov, an 18-year-old freshman from Brandermill, Virginia, and Cook, a 19-year-old sophomore from a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, tried to make sense of the loss.

Umurzokov decided at a young age that he wanted to go into medicine.

He made up his mind after suffering a neurological condition that required him to undergo surgery as a child and having to wear a back brace due to scoliosis. With a double-major in biochemistry and neuroscience, he hoped to go to medical school.

“He had so many hardships in his life, and he got into this amazing school and tried so hard to follow through with the promise he made when was 7 years old,” his sister, Samira Umurzokova, told The Associated Press by phone Monday.

Umurzokov was helping a friend at an economics final review session when someone walked into the classroom and began shooting.

“It’s just crazy unfair that all of that was taken from him in a second because of someone,” Umurzokova said.

He took it upon himself to help students who just immigrated to the United States and weren’t fully acclimated to the culture and language, said Umurzokova, whose family came to the country from Uzbekistan when she, her brother and sister were very young.

She said he would be using his phone at the dinner table and when his parents told him to put it away, he would say, ”‘No, I’m helping my friend with calculus homework.’”

When he wasn’t busy with schoolwork, he would play video games with friends and hang out at a book store with family. He had plans to take his sisters to see the movie “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which comes out Friday.

“He was a thoughtful person,” Umurzokova said. “He always tried to include everyone in everything. and just always thought of other people before he thought of himself.”

Cook, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, was beloved in her Birmingham church and was vice president of the Brown College Republicans.

When announcing her death Sunday to the Cathedral Church of the Advent congregation, the Rev. R. Craig Smalley described her as “an incredible grounded, faithful, bright light” who encouraged and “lifted up those around her."

“Light shines in the darkness,” he told the congregation, urging members to love and pray for her parents.

Members of the Brown College Republicans were “devastated,” the club's president, Martin Bertao, said in a post on X.

“Ella was known for her bold, brave, and kind heart as she served her chapter and her fellow classmates,” Bertao said.

Joe Powers, the chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party, said in a statement that Cook “embodied the very best of the next generation of conservative voices."

Relatives of Cook didn’t immediately respond to emails and phone messages seeking comment.

Only one of the nine people wounded had been released as of Sunday, Brown President Christina Paxson said. One was in critical condition and the other seven were in critical but stable condition.

Durham Academy, a private K-12 school in Durham, North Carolina, confirmed that a recent graduate, Kendall Turner, was critically wounded. The school said her parents were with her.

“Our school community is rallying around Kendall, her classmates, and her loved ones, and we will continue to offer our full support in the days ahead,” the school said in a statement.

People light candles at the beginning of a vigil, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., for those injured or killed during the Saturday shooting on the campus of Brown University. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

The United States flag flies at half-staff as a sign of mourning for the victim's of Saturday's shooting, on the campus of Brown University, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

People hold candles during a vigil, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., for the victims of Saturday's shooting on the campus of Brown University. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)