# Josh Kaul **Josh Kaul** has been the Democratic Attorney General of Wisconsin since January 2019. He matters to this vault for three reasons. He brought Wisconsin's criminal case against the organizers of the 2020 [[Fake Electors Scheme]]. He sued to stop [[Elon Musk]]'s $1 million checks before the 2025 state supreme court election. And he is on the November 3, 2026 ballot for a third term, in a rematch with the Republican he beat by about a point in 2022. His mother, Peg Lautenschlager, was also a Wisconsin attorney general. ## Background Raised in Oshkosh and Fond du Lac; Yale BA, Stanford JD. A former federal prosecutor in Baltimore, he was at Perkins Coie in Madison before his first run. ## Elections | Year | Opponent | Result | |---|---|---| | 2018 | Brad Schimel (R, incumbent) | Won 49.4% to 48.8%, by about 17,000 votes | | 2022 | [[Eric Toney]] (R) | Won 50.6% to 49.3%, a 1.33-point margin | | 2026 | [[Eric Toney]] (R) | November 3. Neither faced a real primary opponent on August 11. | After Governor [[Tony Evers]] said in 2025 he would not seek re-election, Kaul was widely seen as the frontrunner for the open seat. On October 7, 2025 he said he would seek a third term as attorney general instead, citing in part time with his young sons. Toney launched his rematch the same month. ## The fake-elector prosecution Ten Wisconsin Republicans met on December 14, 2020 and signed certificates casting the state's electoral votes for Trump. Kaul never charged them. Law Forward and partner groups sued them civilly instead, and on December 6, 2023 the ten settled, acknowledging Biden won and calling their actions "part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results." They paid no damages. Kaul had said he was deferring to federal investigators. On **June 4, 2024** Kaul charged three of the organizers with felony forgery: [[Kenneth Chesebro]], Trump's Wisconsin campaign lawyer Jim Troupis, and former campaign aide Mike Roman. On **June 16, 2026** all three pleaded not guilty in Dane County Circuit Court before Judge Mario White, each facing 11 forgery counts. Troupis has asked to move the trial out of Madison. No trial date had been reported as of October 2026. All three were on Trump's November 2025 pardon list, but a presidential pardon reaches only federal crimes, not state charges. ## Abortion After [[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]] in 2022, Kaul sued, arguing that later laws, chiefly a 1985 statute allowing abortion until viability, superseded the 1849 ban. On **July 2, 2025** the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed, 4–3. ## The Musk checks (2025) On March 28, 2025, Kaul sued to stop [[Elon Musk]] from handing out $1 million checks days before the April 1 Wisconsin Supreme Court election. He argued it violated the state law against offering anything of value to induce someone to go to the polls. An appeals court and then the Wisconsin Supreme Court (March 30) declined to intervene, and Musk handed out the checks that evening in Green Bay. The [[Wisconsin Elections Commission]] later found probable cause of a bribery-law violation (July 2026), but a special prosecutor declined to charge (August 25, 2026). See [[2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election]] and [[America PAC $1 Million Petition Sweepstakes]]. ## See Also - [[Fake Electors Scheme]] · [[Kenneth Chesebro]] · [[Stop the Steal Timeline]] - [[2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election]] · [[America PAC $1 Million Petition Sweepstakes]] · [[America PAC Timeline]] - [[2026 Key State Races Hub]] · [[Eric Toney]] · [[Tony Evers]] · [[Wisconsin Elections Commission]] - [[Kris Mayes]] — the Arizona attorney general who brought the parallel case · [[CFTC v. Arizona]]