Fani Willis destroyed her own Georgia prosecution by sleeping with the man she hired to run it.
Now a Wisconsin AG is running the same playbook – except his judge may have had someone else write his rulings for him.
And the two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices who could shut this down already claimed on the record they believe the defendant to be a racist.
How Josh Kaul Built the Wisconsin Fake Electors Case on a Ruling His Judge May Not Have Written
Josh Kaul – Wisconsin's Democrat AG – charged former Trump attorney Jim Troupis with 11 felony counts of fraud and forgery in 2024.
The crime? Organizing a slate of contingent electors during the 2020 election contest.
This is what lawyers do. JFK's campaign did it in Hawaii in 1960 when Nixon was initially certified the winner. Al Gore was advised to do it in Florida in 2000.
Kaul's own Department of Justice told the Wisconsin Elections Commission in a 2022 memo that nothing in state law "prohibits or otherwise limits a party from meeting to cast electoral votes during a challenge to an election tabulation."
His own lawyers said it wasn't a crime. Then he charged them anyway.
Troupis – a former judge, former mayor, and member of Wisconsin's Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee – watched Kaul pile on 10 more fraud charges in December 2024, bringing the total to 11 felonies. Each carries up to six years in prison.
When Troupis asked the trial court to dismiss the case, Judge John Hyland said no.
Troupis' defense team noticed something strange about that dismissal order. The language. The turns of phrase. They had seen that style before – and it wasn't Hyland's.
A forensic linguist analyzed the document and concluded it was "highly likely" written by retired Dane County Judge Frank Remington.
Remington's son is Hyland's law clerk. The metadata on the order traced back to the son's computer. And Remington, according to court filings, was not a fan of Troupis from their time together on the bench.
Hyland received the completed draft before he had even finished reading the defendants' arguments.
That is a textbook violation of Rule 60.04(g) of Wisconsin's Code of Judicial Conduct – the prohibition against ex parte communications. A judge cannot receive outside help drafting a ruling against a defendant, especially from someone carrying a personal grudge against that defendant.
Hyland denied the allegations. He refused to hold an evidentiary hearing on the misconduct. He refused to allow a different judge to investigate it. He refused to step aside.
The Wisconsin Court of Appeals looked at all of it and did nothing – without even offering an explanation.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board called it what it is: political lawfare targeting Republicans who advised Trump on the 2020 election.
Jim Troupis Asks Karofsky and Dallet to Recuse Themselves and Their Own Words Make the Case
Troupis has now appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
To get a fair hearing, he first needs two justices to sit down.
Chief Justice Jill Karofsky told Troupis during 2020 oral arguments: "What you want is you want us to overturn this election so that your king can stay in power, and that is so un-American."
She later said his election challenge "smacked of racism" – on a podcast, not just from the bench. She said it again. And again. The Wisconsin Judicial Commission admonished her for it.
Justice Rebecca Dallet told Troupis during that same 2020 hearing: "The only votes you wanna throw out are the votes in the two most diverse non-white urban counties." In 2023 she publicly called Troupis a "partisan" who was trying to "weaponize the disciplinary process" against her and Karofsky.
These are the justices who will now decide whether Troupis gets an evidentiary hearing on the ghostwritten order.
Troupis has filed formal recusal motions against both. Their own words over years – on the bench, on podcasts, in the press – constitute documented actual bias, not merely an appearance of it.
Neither has stepped aside.
Wisconsin Is the Last State Still Running Democrat Lawfare Against Trump's 2020 Attorneys
Fani Willis imploded. The Michigan case was thrown out. The federal cases were dropped. Trump was pardoned. The alternate electors were pardoned.
Wisconsin keeps going.
The reason is simple. Every layer of this system – the trial court, the appeals court, and now potentially the supreme court – is stacked against the defendant. Kaul filed charges his own legal staff said weren't warranted. Evidence emerged that the dismissal order was written by someone with a grudge. Two justices spent years smearing the defendant in public.
None of it stopped anything.
What matters to Josh Kaul is that Jim Troupis helped Donald Trump. In Wisconsin, that is the only crime he has ever cared about.
Troupis told radio host Vicki McKenna that Kaul "cares about the political scalp on his wall that he can give to progressives."
He's right. And unless the Wisconsin Supreme Court does something it has shown no appetite for – acting fairly – that is exactly what Kaul is going to get.
Sources:
- Hans von Spakovsky and John G. Malcolm, "Wisconsin's Democrat AG Is Still Waging Fani Willis-Style Show Trials Against 2020 Election Lawyers," The Federalist, March 12, 2026.
- Matt Kittle, "WI's Legal System Rigged Against Trump's 2020 Lawyers," The Federalist, February 23, 2026.
- M.D. Kittle, "Documents Expose WI Attorney General Josh Kaul's Fraudulent 'Fake Electors' Case," The Federalist, September 16, 2024.
- Wisconsin Right Now, "Jim Troupis Motion Details Extreme Jill Karofsky, Rebecca Dallet Bias, Including Bizarre 'Your King' Comment," February 2026.
- Jim Troupis press release, "Wisconsin Supreme Court's Karofsky and Dallet Accused of Bias," WisPolitics, February 27, 2026.
- "Wisconsin Democrat AG Declared 2020 Alternate Electors Weren't Illegal, Then Prosecuted Case Anyway," The Daily Signal, November 29, 2025.
- Wall Street Journal Editorial Board, "Political Lawfare Continues to Infect U.S. Politics," The Wall Street Journal, February 2026.
