MADISON — A former state Supreme Court justice who spent more than $2 million in taxpayer dollars to review the 2020 election is now representing a group of the former president’s supporters donald trump in his effort to remove the legislative leader who hired him to investigate the last presidential election.
Former State Supreme Court judge Michael Gableman represented a group of Trump supporters in the Racine County area who launched two recall campaigns against Assembly Speaker Robin Vos during a Thursday night meeting of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Commissioners rejected the group’s first recall effort, citing a lack of valid signatures.
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Representing the group trying to unseat Vos is Gableman’s latest move to target Vos after the speaker hired him in 2021 to review the last presidential election, an investigation that catapulted Gableman into a national platform with election conspiracy theorists and made him a front-runner of Trump.
The former Supreme Court justice’s contract with the state began in July 2021 after Trump publicly criticized Vos and other legislative leaders for not doing more to litigate his 2020 Wisconsin election loss.
Vos hired Gableman to investigate the 2020 election and continued to renew his contract for a year, although the review never revealed any evidence of significant fraud or new facts related to the election not previously known.
You terminated Gableman’s contract with the state providing more than $100,000 in salary to Gableman over 14 months. The review cost state taxpayers more than $2 million through salary costs and legal fees related to lawsuits filed against Gableman and Vos for ignored public records requests.
Ultimately, Gableman called Vos and endorsed Vos’s main opponent and publicly encouraged Vos’s critics to consider removing him.
On Thursday, Gableman became combative with commissioners and commission staff and at one point suggested that the efforts of the group he represented had been “infiltrated” and alluded to Vos’ potential involvement without providing evidence.
More: ‘Crazy’ and ‘idiotic jobs’: Robin Vos criticizes recall effort organizers
“(The petitioners) actually had a two-hour meeting with the FBI because they, and based on what I’ve heard and read, I believe that recall 1.0 was intentionally sabotaged, it was infiltrated by outsiders from New York and Florida,” Gableman said. “I cannot say whether this was done at the request of Robin Vos or in his name.”
The petitioners did not gather enough valid signatures during the first withdrawal attempt and were accused of employing circulators who forged signatures.
Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson in March was investigating nearly 30 complaints from area residents who said their signatures were forged by recall organizers.
Matthew Fernholz, Vos’ attorney, told commissioners Thursday that a review of the petitions revealed signatures from people who were not old enough to vote, who were not citizens or who were incapacitated at the time the petition was allegedly signed, among other allegations.
Vos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Michael Gableman provides legal assistance to those seeking to remove Robin Vos
