Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin, carrying the state by 20,682 votes.[5] His slate of electors in Wisconsin was therefore the official electoral college slate for Wisconsin in the 2020 presidential election, entitled to cast their ten votes for president on December 14, 2020, and have those votes conveyed to and counted by the United States Congress on January 6, 2021.
The incumbent president, Donald Trump, lost the election in Wisconsin and nationally, in both the popular vote and electoral college vote. In the days immediately after the presidential election, in November 2020, employees and allies of the Trump campaign sought to challenge the results of the election through various lawsuits.[6] In the midst of that litigation, Kenneth Chesebro, a Trump campaign lawyer, suggested that the campaign should target the January 6, 2021, counting of electoral votes. For that purpose, he suggested that Trump's Wisconsin electoral slate—which had not been elected by the voters of Wisconsin—should meet anyway on the prescribed date—December 14, 2020—and should cast their votes as though they were the state's official electors, fill out paperwork to that effect, and transmit it to Washington. He conveyed this plan to Jim Troupis, a top legal advisor for Trump's campaign in Wisconsin, and after sharing their plans with other leaders of the Trump campaign, including Mike Roman, they proceed with the plan in Wisconsin and provided a template for similar operations in other states.[7]
Initially, this plan was described as a safeguard to preserve the possibility of sending the votes of Trump's electoral slate as the official electoral votes if the Trump campaign prevailed in one of their legal challenges in state or federal court, but the plot continued even as those legal challenges failed. On November 30, the Wisconsin Elections Commission completed a certification of votes following a recount requested by Trump's campaign. That same day, governor Tony Evers signed a certificate of ascertainment, certifying that the Biden electoral slate had received the most votes and were therefore Wisconsin's official slate of presidential electors for 2020. Trump filed additional lawsuits challenging this certification, but those lawsuits were dismissed by United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (on December 11) and the Wisconsin Supreme Court (on the morning of December 14).[1]
At noon on December 14, 2020, Wisconsin's ten legitimate presidential electors met at the Wisconsin State Capitol, cast their votes for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and signed paperwork conveying their votes to the United States Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration. At the same time, in another part of the Capitol, nine of the ten Trump electors met, elected a tenth elector to fill the vacancy of the missing tenth elector, then signed paperwork provided by Chesebro attesting that they were the "duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Wisconsin", and asserting their ten votes should be counted for Donald Trump and Mike Pence.[1]
The fraudulent paperwork was passed to U.S. Senator Ron Johnson and his chief of staff. They then attempted to convey the paperwork to Vice President Mike Pence before the certification of electoral votes on January 6, 2021, but Pence staff refused the documents. Following the riot which disrupted the counting of electoral votes on January 6, the fraudulent elector scheme was brought to light by journalists and the January 6 committee investigation.
Other litigation
Following investigations, the fraudulent elector scheme resulted in criminal charges in four other states. Chesebro was subpoenaed by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, in July 2022. In August 2023, he was one of eighteen people indicted for his role in the alleged racketeering conspiracy by Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis. Chesebro reached a plea agreement with Fulton County prosecutors on October 20, 2023, pleading guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to file false documents, and received five years probation.
Chesebro is said to be cooperating with prosecutors from multiple states and has entered into proffer agreements in order to give himself some protection from prosecution.[8]
Wisconsin civil case
On May 17, 2022, the progressive legal advocacy group Law Forward filed civil lawsuit against the ten false Wisconsin electors along with Chesebro and Troupis, on behalf of the ten legitimate Wisconsin electors. The case was known as Khary Penebaker et al. v. Andrew Hitt et al. After pre-trial hearings and discovery, the ten Trump electors reached a settlement with the plaintiffs on December 6, 2023, acknowledging that their votes were cast on December 14, 2020, at the behest of the Trump campaign and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and were part of an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and disrupt the peaceful transition of power.[9]
Chesebro and Troupis settled with the Penebaker plaintiffs on March 4, 2024, turning over a trove of additional documents detailing their role in the plot.[10]
Kenneth J. Chesebro was an outside advisor to the Trump 2020 campaign. He was the original author of the fraudulent elector memo, and worked on the production of false elector paperwork. He also attended the meeting of the false electors when they signed the fraudulent paperwork.
Michael A. Roman was national director of election day operations for the Trump 2020 campaign, and had previously served as an opposition research director for Trump in the 2016 campaign and for one year in the White House. He participated in conveying the fraudulent paperwork to the United States Congress.
James R. Troupis was the chief legal staffer for the Trump 2020 campaign in Wisconsin. He collaborated with Chesebro on the elector plan and the production of false elector paperwork.
