A former justice of the state supreme court who questioned the Badger State s2020 election procedures was the target of a disciplinary complaint filed by legal regulatory authorities in Wisconsin on Tuesday.
In 2021, Republican Michael Gableman was appointed by Republican Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to head one of several inquiries investigating the 2020 presidential election’s integrity and offer suggestions for improving future elections.
After pushing for the elected official’s removal in a primary challenge and because his investigation, despite its high cost, yielded little useful information and found no evidence of voter fraud, Gableman was ultimately fired without fanfare by Vos himself.
At a hearing in July 2022, then-Dane County judge Valerie Bailey Rihns stated, “I suppose what we learned from this long and tortuous road is that, at least for the first part of this investigation, there was no actual work being done.” Due to their lack of election law experience, the taxpayers are paying $11,000 for someone to sit in a library in New Berlin and learn about election law.
Regulators claim that Gableman repeatedly broke professional rules of conduct required of all Wisconsin attorneys to secure his own position during the inquiry and again during a follow-up investigation into the unsuccessful attempt to uncover fraud, even though fizzled out investigations and dull reports are outside the agency’s purview.
A number of fraudulent assertions made by the former justice in petitions intended to compel the mayors of Madison and Green Bay to answer subpoenas are the most serious of those alleged infractions.
According to the charging document, these petitions included false assertions and neglected to provide to the tribunal important information that Gableman knew would have allowed the tribunal to reach a well-informed conclusion.
Gableman reportedly made misleading claims regarding the mayors’ responses to those subpoenas when they eventually did.
Gableman was previously in hot trouble for a string of outbursts in court after disobeying a court order to answer open records requests, as Law&Crime previously reported.
A sitting judge accused the former justice of interfering with court procedures during the June 2022 hearing by making sexist remarks against a female lawyer and insulting the court. That incident is mentioned among the allegations and served as the initial justification for the referral to Wisconsin’s Office of Lawyer Regulation.
Gableman is charged with ten distinct infractions in total.
Gableman’s acceptance of his role as special counsel to the legislature was another issue that regulators were upset about. The former jurist was never genuinely in favor of strengthening the electoral system, according to the authorities. Instead, according to the lawsuit, Gableman was determined to further a cause consistent with the untrue allegation that the 2020 election was somehow rigged.
From the lengthy charging document:
According to the complaint, Gableman included in his report an appendix outlining his legal opinion that the legislature could decertify the results of the 2020 Wisconsin General Election for President, in which Joseph Biden was declared the winner, despite Vos’ explicit and unambiguous instruction that the investigation’s goal was to gather facts useful for the Assembly’s consideration of potential legislative changes to election administration. This went against the representation’s predetermined goal.
Additionally, investigators claim that Gableman made several blatantly false claims during the regulatory investigation by claiming that providing legal counsel was not part of his duties.
According to the complaint, Gableman did provide legal guidance.
Go here to read the entire 75-page document.
Do you have a tip we ought to know?[email protected]
Note: Thank you for visiting our website! We strive to keep you informed with the latest updates based on expected timelines, although please note that we are not affiliated with any official bodies. Our team is committed to ensuring accuracy and transparency in our reporting, verifying all information before publication. We aim to bring you reliable news, and if you have any questions or concerns about our content, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!