James Roberts Troupis (born September 30, 1953) is an American lawyer and Republican political operative from Dane County, Wisconsin.
He was one of the lead attorneys for the Republican Party in 1992 litigation over redistricting,[4] culminating in the federal court case Prosser v. Wisconsin State Elections Board, 793 F. Supp.
[5] The named plaintiff in that case was Troupis' client, David Prosser Jr., then the Republican minority leader in the Wisconsin State Assembly.
In 2007, Troupis represented recently elected conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Annette Ziegler after she was accused of violating the state code of judicial ethics.
Discovery in the lawsuit revealed that the board had agreed to fire him a week before taking action and had coordinated their communications with the governor's office, technically a violation of the state open meetings laws.
After a narrow re-election victory in April 2010, Prosser retained Troupis as legal counsel to handle any challenges arising from the close election.
For the first time in decades, Republicans held full control of state government for redistricting; the map they passed became infamous as one of the most dramatic gerrymanders in American history.
He coordinated an unprecedented non-disclosure process in which nearly all of the state's Republican lawmakers signed an agreement not to comment on the redistricting plan before the maps were released.
In the case, Baldus v. Members of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, Troupis tried unsuccessfully to avoid being deposed, asserting attorney-client privilege over the redistricting process.
In 2015, Governor Scott Walker appointed Troupis to serve as a Wisconsin circuit court judge in Dane County.
[18] Following the sudden death of Wisconsin Supreme Court justice N. Patrick Crooks in October 2015, Troupis sought appointment to succeed him.
[19] The following April, Troupis' longtime ally David Prosser announced he would retire from the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the middle of his term.
In 2021, at the urging of chief justice Annette Ziegler, Troupis' former client, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to appoint him to the state Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee.
Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn then requested that Troupis and Chesebro draft alternate electoral certificates for Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
Troupis later communicated with Wisconsin's Republican U.S. senator Ron Johnson and his chief of staff about how to get the alternate electoral documents to Vice President Mike Pence on January 6.
[21][23] Troupis and Chesebro subsequently settled the Law Forward litigation in March 2024, turning over additional documents to the plaintiffs and agreeing not to participate in a similar scheme again.
[24] On June 4, 2024, Troupis was indicted in Wisconsin on a single felony conspiracy charge, alongside Chesebro and Trump campaign aide Mike Roman.
[25][26][27] Subsequently, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted to suspend Troupis from his role on the state's Judicial Conduct Advisory Committee.