Madison, Wis. (AP) – A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday refused to recuse himself as requested by a former lawyer for President Donald Trump who is facing a felony fraud case related to the 2020 election in the battleground state.
The judge refused to cancel a preliminary hearing Monday for Trump’s former attorney, who previously served as a judge in the county where the case is pending against him, and two other former Trump aides.
Three former Trump aides face 11 felony counts each in connection with their role in the 2020 vote-rigging scheme. They are: Jim Truppis, who was Trump’s lawyer in Wisconsin during the 2020 election; Kenneth Chesebrough, an attorney who advised Trump’s campaign; and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020.
Trupis, along with two other defendants, argued in a motion filed Monday that all Dane County judges were biased against him. Was a judge in Tropic County for one year from 2015 to 2016.
He also alleged that the judge hearing his case, Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland, sought help from a retired judge in writing an August order refusing to dismiss the case against him.
Trupis argued in the motion that a retired judge who “carried personal animosity” toward Trupis from their time together on the bench actually wrote the order. Trupis asked for an evidentiary hearing in another county.
He included an expert analysis of writing style that compared the order to the writing style of retired Dane County Judge Frank Remington. Trupis’ attorney also attached a Nov. 25 letter he wrote to Hyland in which other attorneys told him that Remington actually wrote the August order because the writing style matched Remington’s in a civil lawsuit they filed against him.
Highland rejected those arguments and Troupis’ call to move the case to another county.
“The court is satisfied that the appointed staff attorney and I did not have a hand in drafting or editing the judgment signed and entered by this court,” Hyland wrote.
Hyland also wrote that she had “no personal animosity or prejudice toward any of the litigants” and that she was satisfied that she could hear the case impartially. He refused to withdraw as requested.
Hyland also said that Trupis presented no evidence to support his claim that other judges in the country were biased against him and therefore could not give a fair hearing.
Trupis’ attorney, Joe Bugni, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Truppis, Chesebrough and Roman face 11 felony counts of trying to deceive every 10 Republican voters who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020 as part of a scheme to file paperwork that Republicans won in battleground states.
Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but fought to reverse the loss. He won the state in both 2016 and 2024.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is prosecuting the case, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
State charges against Trump’s lawyers and aides are only in Wisconsin. No voter has been charged. 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebrough and Trupis all settled lawsuits brought against them in 2023.
On January 6, 2021, federal prosecutors investigating Trump’s conduct related to the US Capitol riots said the fraudulent voter scheme originated in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin complaint details how Trupis, Chesebrough and Roman created a document showing Trump won 10 Electoral College votes in Wisconsin and then tried to deliver the document to then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump aides have argued there was no crime. But a judge in August rejected their arguments to allow the case to proceed.
A judge threw out a similar case in Michigan in September. And last year, a special prosecutor dropped a federal case accusing Trump of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. Georgia’s election meddling case was dismissed by prosecutors earlier last month, and another similar case is pending in Nevada.
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Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report.
