| Josh Kaul | |
| Office: | 45th Attorney General of Wisconsin |
| Governor: | Tony Evers |
| Term Start: | January 7, 2019 |
| Predecessor: | Brad Schimel |
| Birth Name: | Joshua Lautenschlager Kaul |
| Birth Date: | 2 February 1981 |
| Birth Place: | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Relatives: | Peg Lautenschlager (mother) |
| Education: | Yale University (BA) Stanford University (JD) |
Joshua Lautenschlager Kaul (born February 2, 1981) is an American lawyer, politician and member of the Democratic Party who has served as the 45th Attorney General of Wisconsin since January 2019.
Kaul is the son of Peg Lautenschlager, an attorney and politician, and the Indian immigrant Raj Kaul. His stepfather, Bill Rippl, worked as a police officer. He was raised in Oshkosh and Fond du Lac.[1] Kaul graduated from Yale University as a double major in history and economics. He earned his Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School. While a student at Stanford, he served as President of the Stanford Law Review.
Kaul clerked for Michael Boudin in the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.[2] From 2007 through 2010, he worked for the law firm Jenner & Block, and worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office in Baltimore through 2014.[3]
In 2014, Kaul moved back to Wisconsin and joined the law firm Perkins Coie's Madison office.[4]
In the 2018 elections, Kaul ran for Attorney General of Wisconsin defeating incumbent Republican Brad Schimel. Kaul won by a small margin of just over 17,000 votes, but Schimel decided not to seek a recount and conceded defeat on November 19. Kaul became the state's first Democratic Attorney General since his mother's term in office.[5] [6]
Kaul was reelected in 2022 defeating Republican Eric Toney.[7]
On June 4, 2024, Kaul announced he was bringing felony forgery charges against three operatives of Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign who were involved in the plot to produce fraudulent electoral college votes from Wisconsin. Those charged included Kenneth Chesebro, a Wisconsin native and the alleged architect of the national fraudulent elector plot, Jim Troupis, a former Wisconsin circuit court judge who represented Trump in 2020 litigation, and Mike Roman, a Trump campaign aide and former White House staffer.[8]
Kaul met his wife, Lindsey, at Yale. They have two sons.[9]