A divided state Supreme Court reappoints an attorney tied to the fake elector scheme to judicial advisory panel
Molly Beck
MADISON - The conservative majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court has reappointed to a state judicial advisory panel a Dane County attorney involved in an unsuccessful effort to persuade former Vice President Mike Pence to usurp President Joe Biden's 2020 win by accepting slates of electors for Donald Trump.
Attorney Jim Troupis was reappointed to the state Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee by the court in a 4-3 decision, according to an order dated Thursday. The court's liberal minority opposed the move.
"It’s unfortunate four of my colleagues have signed off on such a divisive pick," Justice Rebecca Dallet said in a statement.
"We dissented because Mr. Troupis is a partisan who appears often in court and was just before us in a widely-reported, highly controversial case, which resulted in an attempted weaponization of the disciplinary process against Justice Karofsky and me. One would think there would be less divisive leaders we could come together to agree to appoint to these roles."
According to state courts officials, the committee was created to provide formal opinions and informal advice to judges and judicial officers governed by the state judicial code of conduct. Troupis' first three-year term on the committee expires Tuesday. He will serve a second term until March 7, 2026.
Troupis did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler did not return a phone call.
Former justice calls Troupis' reappointment 'a terrible mistake'
Former Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske in an interview called the decision "a terrible mistake" because of Troupis' ties to such controversial partisan events, even though he is a "very competent" attorney and former judge. "The court ought to be doing everything it can to avoid appearing partisan," said Geske, now of the Marquette University Law School.
Troupis, a former Dane County circuit judge, was hired by Trump's campaign to oversee recounts of ballots cast in Dane and Milwaukee counties after Trump's loss in 2020 and sought to overturn the result by throwing out hundreds of thousands of ballots including his own and his wife’s. He was one of the first to learn of a scheme to put in place Republican electors in states where Trump was trying to overturn election results, receiving a memo on Nov. 18, 2020, outlining the strategy.
The memo arrived the same day Troupis filed paperwork on behalf of the Trump campaign to begin the ballot recounts in the liberal-leaning and populous counties. The U.S. Department of Justice in December subpoenaed communications from election officials in both counties between their offices and Trump and his allies, including Troupis.
Attorney heading up Trump campaign's Wisconsin recount effort is seeking to throw out his own vote
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U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in June said he had coordinated with Troupis to pass along to Pence a document Troupis described as regarding "Wisconsin electors" on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021. A staff member of Pence's rejected the offer, according to evidence released last year by a U.S. House Committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol that occurred the same day.
A state judicial oversight panel last fall tossed a 2021 complaint against liberal-leaning Supreme Court Justice Jill Karofsky over her questioning of Troupis as he represented Trump in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of Wisconsin's presidential election. The complaint also targeted Dallet but the commission did not pursue those allegations.
The Wisconsin Judicial Commission in November dismissed the complaint "with an expression of concern," which is not considered official discipline, over one comment Karofsky directed toward Troupis that the commission deemed to be sarcastic and another that accused Troupis of asking the court to overturn the election "so that your king can stay in power."
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.