American Oversight Files Motion to Hold Speaker Vos in Contempt for Failure to Comply with Wisconsin Public Records Law

On Friday, American Oversight asked the Dane County Circuit Court to hold Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in contempt of court for failing to comply with Wisconsin’s public records law and the court’s order to release Assembly contractors’ records related to Wisconsin’s baseless investigation of the 2020 election. 

American Oversight filed a lawsuit against Vos and the Assembly in early October for failing to release contractors’ records related to the state’s partisan election review, which is being run by conservative attorney Michael Gableman. 

On Nov. 5, the court ordered the Wisconsin Assembly and Vos to release records in response to American Oversight’s lawsuit, giving Vos and the Assembly 10 days to release certain records held by the contractors hired to conduct the inquiry. Almost two weeks have passed since that Nov. 19 deadline, and Vos and the Assembly have not produced the records.

In addition to our lawsuit seeking records held by the Assembly’s contractors, American Oversight has also sued Vos and the Assembly for failing to release records in Vos’s custody. American Oversight is represented by Pines Bach LLP.

These lawsuits are part of American Oversight’s broader investigation into the partisan election inquiry and its connection to similar “audits” fueled by the Big Lie. We have filed multiple public records requests in Wisconsin seeking to uncover critical documents, including:

• Any contracts between the Wisconsin Assembly and parties investigating the election, including the former law enforcement officers and the attorney supervisor;
• Guidance, memos, or other directives regarding the scope of the investigation, its duration, or procedures for handling voter information;
• Records of bids, project proposals, or cost estimates for the investigation, as well as records of any invoices or payments; 
• Communications of Vos and two other lawmakers, state Reps. Janel Brandtjen and Joe Sanfelippo, regarding the investigation and their communications with outside groups or individuals, including Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Cleta Mitchell, and others.

On Wednesday, Gableman finally revealed the names of all but one of the staff members who had been hired to assist with the inquiry. In addition to Gableman, his taxpayer-funded office employs 10 individuals who make between $40 per hour and $10,000 per month. Several of the employees have previously questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election, including Ron Heuer, whose organization Wisconsin Voter Alliance had sued to overturn the state’s election results. 

American Oversight recently obtained expense records that revealed that the public paid more than $2,700 on travel and lodging for Gableman and four investigators’ August trip to Arizona to visit the state Senate’s bogus “audit” of Maricopa County election results. In response, Vos’s spokesperson said that the Assembly would seek to recover those taxpayer dollars.

“At the same time that his hand-selected Special Counsel is trying to have local officials detained for failing to comply with his contradictory and ridiculous subpoenas, Speaker Vos is flagrantly defying an actual court order to release records to the public,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight. “This shell game demands accountability and needs to end.”