Jim Troupis, who represented President Donald Trump during Wisconsin’s 2020 election recount fight, has requested $3.2 million from Trump’s new Anti-Weaponization Fund.
He’s arguing that years of legal and political retaliation devastated his life and family simply because he represented Trump.
In a May 26 letter sent to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and copied to Trump, Sen. Ron Johnson, and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, Troupis detailed what he described as years of investigations, subpoenas, bar complaints, civil lawsuits, and criminal scrutiny tied to his legal work on behalf of Trump.
In the filing, Troupis argued the government targeted him not because he committed a crime, but because he represented a politically disfavored client.
???BREAKING: Wisconsin attorney representing Trump seeks $3.2 million for weaponization–something he still faces to this day!! pic.twitter.com/pQlwtDI3mR
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) May 26, 2026
“In November 2020 I was honored to represent President Trump in the Wisconsin Recount. Sadly, my life (and the lives of my entire family) has been a nightmare since I stepped forward to represent President Trump,” Troupis wrote.
“The total real financial cost now exceeds $1.7 million, the annihilation of my reputation and law practice, thousands of hours in preparation and response to those legal actions, five years of time lost with my children and grandchildren, loss of retirement funds used for defense costs and ongoing legal expenses that will likely cost me our family home and the balance of my retirement funds.”
“I now face spending the rest of my life in prison!”
He went on to list no fewer than 17 legal actions taken against him by the Biden DOJ. Among them:
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March 2022: A secret subpoena of his Gmail account, which contained privileged attorney-client communications
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May 2022: A multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit tied to January 6 and the DOJ investigation
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September 2022: While on a Disney Cruise, his son was separated from the family and his phone and computers were confiscated and copied
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November 2022: Jack Smith’s team identified Troupis as a target
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January 2024: A second secret DOJ subpoena of privileged communications
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January 2021 through December 2024: Multiple bar complaints filed and kept pending
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June/December 2024: A criminal complaint based on DOJ allegations brought by a former Hillary Clinton attorney and Perkins Coie partner, Josh Kaul, now Wisconsin’s attorney general, with a gag order attached
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December 2024: TSA pulled his Global Entry/precheck status
Troupis argued in his letter that the legal strategy pursued by Trump’s Wisconsin team was far from frivolous. He noted that three justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court found the arguments persuasive enough to support aspects of the challenge.
Troupis also pointed out that none of the numerous Biden-era lawyers involved in the litigation ever argued the alternate-elector strategy itself was inherently unlawful.
Instead, he said, their position was simply that the legal effort ultimately failed.
Despite those arguments, Troupis is still facing felony forgery charges in Wisconsin tied to the alternate elector effort following the 2020 election. He has denied any wrongdoing, of course.
A Dane County judge has rejected his motion to dismiss, writing that Troupis has not shown that the First Amendment protects forgery.
The $1.8 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund was created as part of a settlement stemming from Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his confidential tax returns.
The government contractor responsible for leaking the records was later sentenced to five years in federal prison.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the fund is intended to establish a “lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress.”
He emphasized that applicants would not be screened based on partisan affiliation.
Democrats who had no issues with politicizing the Justice Department against Trump and his allies now oppose this fund to compensate them for improperly being targeted.
Because of course they do.
