Kenneth Chesebro, an architect of Donald Trump’s scheme to subvert the 2020 election, has been charged with felony forgery in Wisconsin, court records show.
Chesebro, who developed a strategy to send false slates of presidential electors — and to use them to stoke a conflict on Jan. 6, 2021 aimed at blocking Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory — was charged alongside Jim Troupis, a 2020 Trump campaign lawyer, and Mike Roman, a former Trump campaign operative.
Chesebro and Roman were previously identified as alleged Trump co-conspirators in Georgia and Arizona. For Troupis, it’s the first time facing criminal charges connected to the alleged scheme. All three face the same single count of forgery, which stems from their role soliciting and delivering false sets of elector certificates to Congress in December 2020.
The criminal charges from Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, had not yet been officially announced on Tuesday morning, but the charging papers were publicly available on a court docket for Dane County, where the state capital, Madison, is located.
Wisconsin is the fifth state to level charges against participants in the elector scheme, but it has special significance because the scheme was largely hatched there. Chesebro was deputized by Troupis to craft an elector strategy in November 2020 focused primarily on Wisconsin. But as Trump grew increasingly desperate to stave off his defeat in the 2020 election, Troupis promoted Chesebro’s efforts to the national campaign, which quickly opted to export it to other states as part of a national strategy.
Eventually, Chesebro became the point-man for Trump and his allies to coordinate the slates of false electors in seven states. Would-be pro-Trump electors have been charged in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.
Special counsel Jack Smith also labeled Chesebro an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s criminal case in Washington, D.C., citing him as the source of Trump’s increasingly fringe legal and political strategy.
Chesebro pleaded guilty to a single charge in Georgia and received a nominal sentence. He cooperated with investigators in Arizona and was labeled an unindicted co-conspirator there. He has also been the subject of civil lawsuits in Michigan and Wisconsin that have shed light on his extraordinary efforts on Trump’s behalf.
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
