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MADISON, Wis. – The Republican-led review of Wisconsin’s 2020 elections came to an abrupt end Friday when the GOP Assembly Speaker, who launched the probe last summer, fired the former state Supreme Court justice who had hired to lead it .
The firing came a week after Michael Gableman, who led the investigation, joined former President Donald Trump in turning against House Speaker Robin Vos amid the veteran Wisconsin politician’s efforts to fend off a primary challenge from the right.
The random, one-year inquiry was marked by meetings with conspiracy theorists, violations of state public records laws and a call for Gableman to investigate the legally impossible task of discrediting election results. He revealed no evidence of widespread fraud, despite Trump and Gableman trying to suggest otherwise.
“After many members of our group have contacted me over the past several days, it is not clear to me that we have only one choice in this matter and that is to close the Office of the Special Counsel,” Voss said in a written statement.
Voss had a rocky relationship with Trump, who supported the Wisconsin review but repeatedly pressed Voss to go further with it. Last week, Trump and Gableman endorsed the longtime Republican’s primary opponent, with the former president holding a rally urging voters to oust Vos.
Voss won Tuesday’s primary against Adam Steen, but just barely, earning 51 percent of the vote. Steen called for a vote of no confidence and called Voss, one of Wisconsin’s most powerful Republicans, a traitor.
The dismissal marks the end of a saga that began in June 2021, when Voss, acting under pressure from Trump, announced at the state Republican Party’s annual convention that he had hired Gableman. The retired judge previously claimed without evidence that the election was stolen.
Gableman took months to set up his office and spent the early stage of his review doing online research from a public library in suburban Milwaukee. He visited the site of an often-criticized GOP-led ballot review in Arizona and attended a seminar in South Dakota hosted by Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow, which has been making false claims about the 2020 election.
As he continued his review, Gableman claimed to be nonpartisan as he attended GOP events and called for the resignation of a Republican state senator who criticized his review as a charade. Gableman has criticized the way the nonpartisan state election commission director dresses and monitors the social media posts of others. He or one of his aides drafted a memo speculating that a Milwaukee city clerk was a Democrat because she had a nose ring, liked snakes and lived with her boyfriend.
In March, Gableman issued a report urging lawmakers to consider stripping the state’s 10 electoral votes for Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes. Voss had long opposed the idea, as election experts — including Gableman’s own attorney, James Bopp Jr. — found there was no way to legally accomplish the task.
Gableman admitted his proposal was a “practical impossibility” two weeks later in a private memo to Voss that came to light this month.
Vos forced Gableman to reimburse taxpayers for his travel to a partisan event, but publicly tolerated much of Gableman’s approach to the review. That changed after Gableman backed Steen and cut off an automated call, saying Voss “never wanted a real investigation.”
Gableman went further Monday on former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon’s podcast, claiming Voss had a role in stealing the 2020 election. found signs of significant voter fraud.)
“[Vos] oversaw the implementation of the entire hateful apparatus that the Wisconsin Board of Elections used to steal elections from — and I won’t even say from a specific candidate. I will say that they stole it from the voters and the good citizens of the state of Wisconsin,” Gableman said.
Gableman said Voss feared he would face public criticism if he challenged the state’s election system more vigorously, and claimed Voss told him he wanted to play down election issues.
“What he told me is that he doesn’t think the issue of election integrity is going to be a successful political platform for either him or other Republicans to run on, and so he wants to minimize any discussion and any behavior on the matter before [2022] election,” Gableman said.
With his probe, Gableman discovered some new information. The reports he wrote mostly echoed the findings of conservative groups that have criticized the way elections have been conducted during the coronavirus pandemic.
Voss initially gave Gableman a $676,000 taxpayer-funded budget, but Voss and Gableman quickly overruled it when their legal bills mounted. The pair lost a series of court rulings and were found in contempt of court after the liberal watchdog group American Oversight sued them under the state’s open records law.
Voss telegraphed Gableman’s firing after winning his primary victory, telling reporters Tuesday night, “He’s an embarrassment to the state.”
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