Sen. Ron Johnson asks DOJ to investigate Wisconsin judge in former Trump attorney's case

MADISON, Wis. — Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson asked the U.S. Department of Justice this week to investigate allegations made by a former attorney for President Donald Trump in Wisconsin that a judge overseeing his felony case is guilty of misconduct and must step aside.

The judge on Tuesday refused to step aside in the case of Trump's former campaign attorney and two others who face felony forgery charges related to the 2020 election in the battleground state.

Jim Troupis, Trump's former attorney who is also a former judge, alleged that the Wisconsin judge overseeing his felony case had not written the August order refusing to dismiss the charges. Troupis alleged that Judge John Hyland had received help in writing the order from a retired judge whose son works for Hyland.

Hyland refuted the allegations and refused to step aside or cancel a Monday preliminary hearing in the case as Troupis had requested.

Hyland said he and his law clerk alone wrote the order in question.

Johnson, in his Thursday letter to U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi, asked the Justice Department to review the allegations brought forward by Troupis's attorney Joe Bugni.

''It is difficult to understand how Judge Hyland can make an impartial decision about Mr. Bugni's allegations when he is directly implicated,'' Johnson wrote in the letter.

Johnson has known Troupis for years. In 2022, Johnson's campaign hired Troupis's law firm for legal consulting and to prepare for a possible recount as the Republican was running for reelection.

Troupis said in a statement that ''it is long past time'' for the Justice Department to ''bring an end'' to the ''obvious political witch hunt.''

A spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed the request had been received but declined to comment.

Troupis argued in the motion that the retired judge, Frank Remington, ''carries personal animus'' toward Troupis from their time together on the bench. Troupis asked for all of the Dane County judges to step aside and for a court in another county to hold an evidentiary hearing.

Remington told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Thursday that he never spoke to his son or Hyland about the case and did not write or help write any decisions issued in the case. Remington told the newspaper he was surprised that Troupis feels there is ill will between them. Troupis was a judge in Dane County from 2015 to 2016.

Democratic Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul last year filed 11 felony charges against Troupis and the two others in relation to their roles in the 2020 fake elector scheme. In addition to Troupis, the other two charged are Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised Trump's campaign, and Mike Roman, Trump's director of Election Day operations in 2020.

The charges allege that the three defrauded the 10 Wisconsin Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.

Prosecutors contend the three lied to the Republicans about how the certificate they signed would be used as part of a plan to submit paperwork to then-Vice President Mike Pence falsely claiming that Trump had won the battleground state that year.

Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but fought to have the defeat overturned. He won the state in both 2016 and 2024.

The Trump associates have argued that no crime took place.