Jury Trial Against Fake Wisconsin Electors Set Before the 2024 Presidential Election

Thursday, May 25th, 2023 -- 3:00 PM

(By Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio) A jury trial in the lawsuit against Wisconsin Republicans who posed as electors in 2020 could take place shortly before the 2024 presidential election.

According to Shawn Johnson with the Wisconsin Public Radio, Dane County Judge Frank Remington told attorneys in the case Wednesday that, assuming the case moves forward, the jury trial would begin Sept. 3, 2024.

Remington scheduled the trial to last one month. Democrats filed the lawsuit last year, arguing the 10 Republicans and two attorneys who advised them broke a variety of laws, including one that bans people from falsely acting as public officials.

Plaintiffs are seeking punitive damages of up to $2.4 million. Republicans named in the lawsuit met at the state Capitol to cast votes for Trump on Dec. 14, 2020, the same day Wisconsin's Democratic electors cast Wisconsin's official electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden.

Both meetings happened shortly after the Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected the Trump campaign's last remaining lawsuit in Wisconsin seeking to overturn Biden's victory in Wisconsin. Trump and his allies had previously lost several cases challenging election results in both state and federal courts.

Wisconsin's actual electors sent official documents affirming Biden's victory to the president of the U.S. Senate, the Wisconsin secretary of state, the National Archives and the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The Republicans posing as electors sent their own official-looking documents to the same places. At a scheduling hearing Wednesday discussing the timeline for the case, Jeff Mandell, one of the attorneys representing Democrats, noted that one of the goals for plaintiffs was to prevent Republican plaintiffs from serving as electors in future elections.

Mandell said the next slates of electors would be chosen in October 2024.

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