Three men who allegedly orchestrated a plot to reverse Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Wisconsin have been charged with forgery for their role in a scheme alongside campaign officials to subvert state documents that represented millions of voters.
Kenneth Chesebro, Mike Roman and James Toupis were each charged with a felony count of forgery on Tuesday, according to court records.
Former Trump-allied attorneys Chesebro and Toupis were among the architects of the so-called “fake elector” scheme to falsely proclaim Trump’s victory in states he lost to President Joe Biden.
Chesebro previously pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a sweeping election interference case in Georgia. Roman is also a co-defendant in that case, and among the 12 defendants and Trump allies in a similar election interference case in Arizona.
A criminal complaint from the office of Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul alleges that the three defendants were part of a conspiracy to submit a false certification of the state’s elector votes “from individuals who were not Wisconsin’s duly appointed electors.”
If convicted, the defendants face up to $10,000 in fines and/or up to six years years in prison.
Governor Tony Evers offered a one-word statement in response: “Good.”
Chesebro and Toupis were part of a legal team that advised Wisconsin’s 10 GOP electors to meet and cast their votes for Trump despite Biden’s victory in the state.
According to a civil lawsuit that was settled earlier this year, Chesebro and Toupis coordinated with Trump campaign officials to implement the “alternate” elector strategy in Wisconsin and six other states to replace electors with Trump loyalists to submit fraudulent certificates of state election results to Congress.
The settlement did not include any admission of wrongdoing or liability, but Chesebro and Toupis agreed that they would not participate in similar campaigns and were ordered to pay an undisclosed amount to plaintiffs.
Their initial court appearances in the forgery case are tentatively scheduled for September 19.
The criminal charges are the first in Wisconsin against Trump-allied Republican officials, aides and activists who joined a nationwide effort to reverse the former president’s 2020 election loss.
Law enforcement officials have now filed criminal charges in five out of seven swing states – including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin – where defendants are accused of orchestrating an attempt to unlawfully submit fraudulent Electoral College results to Congress, where Trump and his allies then pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021.
Charges have not been filed in Pennsylvania and New Mexico.
Trump himself is criminally charged in connection with the scheme in Georgia and in federal court in Washington DC. He has pleaded not guilty.
