Former Dane County Judge James Troupis appears in court on Dec. 12. He faces felony forgery charges for his role in developing the 2020 false elector scheme to overturn the election results for Donald Trump. (Screenshot | WisEye)

A Dane County judge ruled last week that the criminal cases will be allowed to continue against two former attorneys and a campaign staff member of President Donald Trump for orchestrating the scheme to have Wisconsin Republicans cast false Electoral College votes for Trump in 2020. 

John D. Hyland denied the motion to dismiss in an Aug. 22 order. Last year, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed criminal charges against Kenneth Cheseboro, Jim Troupis and Mike Roman. 

Cheseboro, a Wisconsin native, was one of the main planners of the false elector scheme. The scheme led to Electoral College votes being cast for Trump in seven states and began the series of events that led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Troupis, a former Dane County judge, worked as an attorney for the Trump campaign. Roman allegedly delivered the false paperwork from Wisconsin Republicans to the staff member of a Pennsylvania congressman in order to get them to Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6. 

The three men each face 11 criminal charges related to felony forgery. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of six years in prison and a $10,000 fine. 

“Troupis does not show that the First Amendment protects the right to commit forgery, does not show that the government violated his right to due process by entrapping him into that forgery, and does not show prosecutors must exercise discretion to charge an accused of his preferred offense,” Hyland wrote in his order denying the motion to dismiss.