In the latest legal fallout from the failed bid backed by Donald Trump to overturn his 2020 election loss, Kenneth Chesebro, Michael Roman and James Troupis pleaded not guilty Tuesday to Wisconsin state charges in connection with the so-called fake electors scheme.

The defendants “argue that they committed no crime and were just trying to keep their options alive in case a court ruled that Trump had actually won the state,”The Associated Press reported.

According to a complaint the state previously filed against them, Chesebro and Troupis represented the Trump campaign in Wisconsin and Roman worked for the campaign. The state charged them with conspiracy and fraudulent writings, alleging, among other things, that they conspired to put forth a false certification of 2020 electors from that state.

“The criminal complaint in this case alleges that the defendants were part of a conspiracy to present a certificate of purported electoral votes from individuals who were not Wisconsin’s duly appointed electors,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said when he announced the case in 2024. He alleged a conspiracy to have unappointed electors meet and cast votes in Wisconsin and to transmit a “Certificate of the Votes of the 2020 Electors from Wisconsin” that reflected the votes of these unappointed electors.

Trump himself has largely avoided criminal consequences, thanks in part to his 2024 election victory. His Justice Department won’t be charging him or his allies.

But criminal consequences stemming from the nationwide 2020 election plot are still possible in state cases, though they have faced their own hurdles, perhaps most notably the Georgia case that was dismissed after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office was disqualified. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office said it’s going back into the grand jury against Trump allies after a previous faltered effort.

Chesebro recently got some good news from Florida’s top court when it reinstated him to the practice of law in the state. The court noted that Chesebro had pleaded guilty in the Georgia case (before the case went off the rails), but that his conviction was entered pursuant to Georgia’s first-offender act and he was ultimately “exonerated of guilt.”

A dissenting Florida justice noted that Chesebro didn’t dispute that he had submitted fraudulent ballot information to a federal court in Georgia. The justice said that “the intentional commission of fraud upon the court is one of the most egregious ethical transgressions a lawyer can commit, and such serious misconduct necessitates the imposition of severe professional sanctions.”

Fallon Gallagher contributed reporting.

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Another one of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers was confirmed as a federal appeals court judge on Monday, when the Senate voted 48-43 to place Justin Smith on the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. Smith has been Trump’s lead attorney at the Supreme Court in the president’s effort to upend the millions of dollars in damages that E. Jean Carroll won against him for sexual abuse and defamation.

Smith’s confirmation follows Emil Bove’s confirmation to the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. It also follows Trump’s nomination of Matthew Schwartz to the New York-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Schwartz was working on the president’s appeal of his hush money conviction, which New York state prosecutors won at trial against Bove and Todd Blanche, the latter of whom the president has nominated to be attorney general.

Blanche is currently acting attorney general, following the departure from that role of another Trump personal lawyer, Pam Bondi.

Before his judicial appointment, Bove was a high-ranking Trump Justice Department lawyer who spearheaded several administration priorities, including the failed attempt to only temporarily dismiss corruption charges against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Separately, a DOJ whistleblower accused Bove of saying the department “would need to consider telling the courts ‘f— you’ and ignore any such court order” in litigation over deportation flights. Bove said he “did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders.”   

Smith represented Trump in the Carroll litigation alongside his colleagues at James Otis Law Group, a St. Louis firm founded by John Sauer. The firm has represented Trump in several matters, also including the criminal immunity appeal that Sauer argued to the justices in 2024. Sauer is now the solicitor general, the DOJ’s top lawyer representing the United States at the Supreme Court. The DOJ said it will be supporting Trump’s high court appeal against Carroll.

Trump has two separate but related Carroll appeals stemming from the two damages awards from separate juries. The president lost his appeals so far in the 2nd Circuit, over dissent from judges he appointed to that court in his first term. He is challenging both losses at the Supreme Court.

One of his petitions has been pending for months, but the justices have yet to decide whether to grant review. The latest filing on the docket is a June 2 letter from Smith that said the second petition is coming “within the next month,” and he suggested the court “may wish to consider the petitions together.”

It takes four justices to grant review. The court could grant review of either, both or neither petition, but we don’t know yet what the court will do, only that it didn’t immediately deny the first petition. The promised forthcoming petition will show who Trump’s latest lead counsel is.

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