Senator Asks DOJ To Investigate Judge Accused Of Misconduct
Wisconsin’s senior Republican senator, Ron Johnson, has called on the Department of Justice to investigate alleged judicial misconduct in a criminal case involving attorneys from former president Trump’s 2020 campaign. The case focuses on allegations that Dane County Circuit court Judge John Hyland’s order rejecting motions to dismiss was improperly influenced or even written by retired Judge Frank Remington, who reportedly harbors animosity toward Trump campaign attorney Jim Troupis. Troupis and others have been charged by Wisconsin’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul with multiple felonies related to the use of “fake electors” during the contested 2020 election, a strategy traditionally used in disputed elections. Troupis’ defense argues the charges are politically motivated and not supported by law. Despite motions and expert linguistic analysis suggesting Remington ghostwrote Hyland’s ruling, Judge Hyland has denied any misconduct and refused to step aside. Senator Johnson expressed concern about Hyland’s impartiality given the allegations and urged DOJ involvement to ensure judicial ethics are upheld in this highly partisan and controversial case.
Wisconsin’s senior senator wants the Department of Justice to investigate alleged judicial misconduct in a criminal case targeting 2020 Trump campaign attorneys.
On Thursday, Sen. Ron Johnson sent Attorney General Pam Bondi a letter asking the DOJ to review the case “to determine whether any wrongdoing has occurred” in the suspect production of a liberal Dane County judge’s earlier order rejecting motions to dismiss the case.
As The Federalist reported this week, court filings accuse Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Hyland of having outside help from a retired judge who holds a grudge against his former colleague Jim Troupis. A renowned election-law attorney, Troupis served as one of the Trump campaign’s legal representatives following the irregularity-riddled 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin.
1/ With the documents now unsealed, we know the allegations against Dane County Judge Hyland in the prosecution of Jim Troupis. Let’s start at the beginning… 🧵https://t.co/4FWjLBsLU0
— Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) December 10, 2025
Leftist Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has charged Troupis, fellow attorney Kenneth Chesebro, and Trump campaign aide Mike Roman with 11 felony counts of forgery and fraud for their efforts to protect Trump’s electoral votes while the president contested the results of the disputed election. Joe Biden claimed an extremely narrow victory in Wisconsin amid charges of election law violations, particularly in Wisconsin’s liberal strongholds, Madison and Milwaukee.
The highly partisan prosecutor accuses the defendants of using “fake electors” in an attempt to snatch Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes from Biden. But the strategy of enlisting a slate of alternate — or contingent — electors has been employed in past disputed presidential elections. Motions for dismissal note as much, and accuse the Democrat AG of pushing manipulated charges not supported by state law in pursuit of a political conviction of Trump allies.
‘Directly Implicated’
In motions filed his week asking that Hyland be removed from the case and his August order be vacated, Troupis’ attorney Joe Bugni asserts that the decision was ghostwritten by retired Dane County Judge Frank Remington. Bugni backs up his assertion with a report by a linguistic expert who found it “highly likely from a linguistic perspective, that the [August 22 Court order] was written by Judge Remington, despite the fact that it is signed by Judge Hyland.”
If so, that would not only be a clear breach of judicial ethics and Wisconsin law, it would also present a personal conflict, Bugni argues.
Troupis, a former Dane County judge and an extremely rare conservative one at that, was not Remington’s “cup of tea,” according to the motion to disqualify Hyland.
“Judge Remington was (to put it mildly) not a fan of my client when they were in practice or when they were colleagues on the bench,” Bugni wrote. “Moreover, Judge Remington retired from the bench on May 3, before the motions were ripe—we filed our reply on May 12.5.” The name of Remington’s son, a Dane County law clerk, appeared in the order’s metadata, according to the motion.
Hyland confirmed in a meeting with Bugni and prosecutors that he had not worked with Remington’s son before, yet he had received a draft of an order from the law clerk before Hyland had read all of the case’s briefs, the motion alleges.
The presiding judge shrugged off the misconduct allegations in rejecting the motions to remove him from the case.
“The Court is satisfied that no person other the assigned staff attorney and I had a hand in drafting or editing the decision which this Court signed and entered,” the judge wrote, adding that he could be fair and impartial.
Johnson isn’t so confident.
“It is difficult to understand how Judge Hyland can make an impartial decision about Mr.Bugni’s allegations when he is directly implicated,” the Republican senator wrote in his letter to Bondi.
Johnson copied Chadwick Elgersma, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, Ed Martin Jr., the DOJ’s Pardon Attorney, and Mary Beth Keppel, Chairwoman of the Wisconsin Judicial Commission.
Hyland also rejected the defendants’ request to reschedule a preliminary hearing slated for Monday in Dane County Court.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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