A former lawyer for Donald Trump who was indicted for his part in allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election using a fake elector scheme has been suspended from a state judicial ethics panel by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

Jim Troupis has faced calls to step down from the Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee since before he was indicted on a felony charge that he signed an official document stating Trump won the state.

Troupis was indicted June 4 by state attorney general Josh Kaul (D) along with Kenneth Chesebro, another Trump attorney, and former Trump aide Mike Roman.

The 4-3 order said the suspension was "temporary," but did not give a time frame when it would end.

Troupis's role

Troupis has been on the committee since 2020 and was reappointed in 2023 to a second three-year term.

The committee rarely issues formal opinions, though it has the authority to do so. It does give informal opinions to judges and other judicial officers a few times a year and serves mostly in an advisory role.

The fake electors, Chesebro and Troupis settled a lawsuit against them in 2023 but did not admit any wrongdoing.

Troupis has said that Wisconsin's 2020 election results could have been appealed at the time, so the alternate elector ballots were a reasonable action to take.

Similar actions

Documents that were part of the settlement showed that six other swing states took similar actions.

Troupis sent the signed alternate elector documents to then-Vice President Mike Pence through Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson (R), but Pence's office refused to accept them.

The vote count in Wisconsin was razor thin, with Biden only winning by about 21,000 votes.

Troupis filed lawsuits on Trump's behalf after the election alleging that tens of thousands of absentee ballots should not be counted, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against Trump 4-3.

If Troupis is convicted on the felony charge, he could face six years in prison and up to a $100,000 fine.

Troupis was very nearly on the court that suspended him, having applied for a vacancy in 2016.