News Roundup: The Latest in Wisconsin

Yet another alarming indication of the influence election denialists wield over conservative lawmakers took place this week in Wisconsin.

Voting rights

Wisconsin

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Yet another alarming indication of the influence election denialists wield over conservative lawmakers took place this week in Wisconsin: On Thursday, Republicans in the Wisconsin Senate voted to fire the state’s top nonpartisan elections official, Meagan Wolfe, who has been the target of right-wing attacks.

Those attacks have focused on voting measures adopted during the 2020 primary and general election, as the coronavirus pandemic brought unprecedented challenges in the administration of election, and are a product of former President Trump’s refusal to accept his loss. But they’ve been steadily fed over the past few years by the election denial movement and baseless allegations of fraud.

Wolfe has been the administrator of the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission since 2018, and was confirmed unanimously by the state Senate in 2019.
She plans to continue in the role as the issue plays out in court, with Democrats and members of Gov. Tony Evers’ administration having denounced the vote as illegitimate.
“The Senate’s vote today to remove me is not a referendum on the job I do, but rather a reaction to not achieving the political outcome they desire,” Wolfe told reporters on Thursday.

Of course, the same conspiracy theories about absentee ballots and municipal grants are what fueled the Wisconsin Assembly’s discredited and partisan inquiry in the 2020 election, which was headed by attorney Michael Gableman within the Assembly’s Office of Special Counsel (OSC).

Earlier this week, the Wisconsin Assembly finally posted records from Gableman’s review — records that OSC lawyers had first promised would be made available to the public nearly one year ago.

Last year, our investigation revealed that OSC was routinely deleting records from the review. We sued to prevent the further deletion of public records.
As recently as June of this year, OSC claimed in a court filing that the Assembly clerk had already posted all the documents, which was not the case.
We’re still reviewing the documents — visit our website for updates on what we find.

Meanwhile, news came out this week that Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has reportedly created a panel of former state supreme court justices to advise him on efforts to remove newly elected Justice Janet Protasiewicz. Vos has threatened to impeach Protasiewicz if she does not recuse herself from Supreme Court cases about Republican-drawn redistricting maps.

We immediately filed a public records request for Vos’ communications related to that effort and his consultation with former justices.
“It’s bad enough that he’s threatening impeachment for partisan political gain; creating a secret panel to shield these efforts from public view is an additional violation of the public trust,” said American Oversight Executive Director Heather Sawyer. “The people of Wisconsin have a right to know who is involved and how they’re working to remove a duly elected supreme court justice.

On the Records

More Records Related to DOJ Election Investigation
Attorney Katherine Friess was one of several allies who aided Trump’s scheme to overturn his election result, serving as an adviser to Rudy Giuliani. According to a story this week in Politico, emails exchanged by Friess have been turned over to Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Politico’s reporting shows that in November 2020, Friess suggested election denier Phil Waldron join Giuliani to testify about the election results before the Arizona Legislature. Waldron became a key player in the plot to overturn the presidential election.
An email we obtained shows Waldron included Friess in a Dec. 8, 2020, email to Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, Giuliani adviser Bernie Kerik, and Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem. “This is the base research doc that our team produced on AZ,” he wrote.
We know from other records we’ve obtained that Giuliani was in frequent contact with Arizona Senate President Karen Fann around this time — the email shows another link between Arizona leaders and Trump’s legal team as they challenged the election results.

John Eastman’s Disbarment Trial
Hearings in Trump-allied lawyer John Eastman’s disbarment trial are ongoing. We compiled public records that shed light on the election-denying activities of individuals who appear on the long list of scheduled and potential witnesses.

Last week, Michael Gableman testified on Eastman’s behalf. Our investigation of Gableman’s review shed light on the partisan and election-undermining origins of Gableman’s taxpayer-funded operation — and the involvement of election conspiracy theorists.
This week, Georgia-based election-denial activist Garland Favorito testified in support of Eastman. We obtained records showing his involvement in several election-undermining efforts, including his communications with Doug Logan, the CEO of lead Arizona “audit” contractor Cyber Ninjas.
Earlier this month, Eastman’s team asked if witnesses who were previously excluded for procedural reasons could be allowed to testify, including Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers and former state Rep. Mark Finchem. We’ve also compiled records on these barred witnesses.
Eastman is also referred to in the recent election-subversion indictments. Read more about what we’ve uncovered regarding Eastman’s involvement in the scheme to overturn the 2020 election here.

News Roundup: The Latest in Wisconsin

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