Judge rules Evers can be questioned in fake electors lawsuit

Listen to this article

As a part of the lawsuit over the Republican fake electors in Wisconsin, a judge ruled Thursday Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers may be questioned in his capacity as a Democratic elector during the 2020 presidential election.

The questioning is a part of an ongoing lawsuit against former President Donald Trump’s attorneys.

According to court records obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal, defendants in the case allegedly had a role in the “violent mob (who) broke into the United States Capitol” on January 6, 2021.

“Defendants not only helped lay the groundwork for the events of January 6, 2021, but also inflicted lasting damage Wisconsin’s civic fabric,” court documents noted.

“The public’s faith in the integrity of our elections is critical to the continued functioning of our democracy. If citizens believe that their votes can be overridden by the scheming of partisan actors, they will have little incentive to
participate in the political process,” according to court documents in this case.

The Wisconsin defendants named in the case are: Andrew Hitt, Robert F. Spindell, Jr, Bill Feehan, Kelly Ruh, Carol Brunner, Edward Scott Grabins, Kathy Kiernan, Darryl Carlson, Pam Travis, Mary Buestrin, James R. Troupis, and Kenneth Chesebro.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, back in May of 2023 two Wisconsin Democratic electors and a voter sued Republicans who attempted to cast electoral ballots for Donald Trump in 2020 despite Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state.

Fake electors met in Wisconsin and other battleground states undermining the democratic process in states where Trump was defeated in 2020. These fake electors attempted to cast ballots for the former president Trump, despite his loss at the polls.

Republicans who participated in Wisconsin said they were trying to preserve Trump’s legal standing in case courts overturned his defeat.

President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by more than 20,000 votes, which about the population size of Whitefish Bay and Bayside combined.

Back in December, 10 Republicans settled the lawsuit after admitting they were part of a national effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s legitimate victory.

However, the case against Trump’s two attorneys is scheduled to go to a trial by jury in September, two months before the presidential election.

Among the ten republicans are two attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis, Trump’s Wisconsin legal counsel.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, Chesebro is a Wisconsin-native and was one of five Trump lawyers and aides who received a criminal referral last December, following its 18-month investigation, and was also named in the recent Georgia case.

In a motion obtained by the Wisconsin Law Journal, lawyers argued “Mr. Chesebro is alleged to have acted in ways that interfered with Georgia’s rules, processes, and procedures of determining its electors for the 2020 presidential election. However, every action undertaken by Mr. Chesebro, however limited, was justified under Georgia and Federal law. Mr. Chesebro, being an expert in constitutional law, acted within his capacity as a lawyer in researching and finding precedents in order to form a legal opinion which was then supplied to his client, the Trump Campaign. Nothing about Mr. Chesebro’s conduct falls outside the bounds of what lawyers do on a daily basis; researching the law in order to find solutions that address their clients particularized needs.”

When Senator Ron Johnson was asked by the Wisconsin Law Journal about text messages sent from his staff to then-Vice President Mike Pence’s staff to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Johnson said, “it was such a non-event to me and my office … it was a big nothing burger.”

“I know the biased media is trying to make it a big conspiracy. If an attorney for the president for the United States contacts asks you and says can you deliver something to the vice president, what are you going to do, ask him 65,000 questions and grill on him? I had no idea what was being asked to be delivered,” claiming that nothing was delivered. “My involvement lasted seconds,” Johnson added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More information about the case is available by clicking here.