Former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who led 2020 election probe agrees to surrender law license
A former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who spread election conspiracies and led an investigation into President Donald Trump's loss in the
A former Wisconsin state Supreme Court justice who spread election conspiracies and led an investigation into President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss in the swing state agreed Monday to surrender his law license to settle multiple misconduct violations.
The state Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a 10-count complaint in November against Michael Gableman, accusing him of misconduct during the probe. The state Supreme Court ultimately could revoke Gableman’s law license, although the court rarely administers such a harsh punishment against wayward attorneys.
The OLR and Gableman filed a stipulation with the Supreme Court on Monday in which they agreed an appropriate sanction would be suspending Gableman’s license for three years. A referee overseeing the case and the Supreme Court must approve the agreement before it can take effect.
Gableman acknowledged in the filing that the complaint provides “an adequate factual basis” and that he couldn’t successfully defend himself against the allegations.
Eastman pushed top Wisconsin Republican Robin Vos to "nullify" the results and “reclaim" electors awarded to Biden.
Former Trump lawyer John Eastman is still trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election amid a legal battle with the House Jan. 6 committee over his role in the former president's failed effort to reverse his loss.
Eastman played a key role as a top adviser in Trump's scheme to block the certification of President Joe Biden's win and wrote a plan outlining how then-Vice President Mike Pence could supposedly reject legitimate electors from states won by Biden. Eastman's efforts have come under the scrutiny of the Jan. 6 committee, which subpoenaed his records related to the scheme. Eastman fought the subpoena before a judge last month ordered him to turn over documents after finding that he and Trump "more likely than not" committed federal crimes when they "corruptly attempted to obstruct" Congress.
But Eastman is not done trying to undo Trump's loss. He was one of several Trump allies who last month secured a two-hour private meeting with Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, to pressure him to "nullify" the 2020 election and "reclaim the electors awarded to Biden," which legal experts say is not possible, according to ABC News.
Eastman urged Vos to "decertify the election," according to the report. Jefferson Davis, a Wisconsin activist who also attended the meeting, told ABC that Eastman pushed Vos to start "reclaiming the electors" and move forward with "either a do over or having a new slate of electors seated that would declare someone else the winner."
Eastman did not comment on the meeting.
"By explicit request from Speaker Vos, that meeting was confidential, so I am not able to make any comment," he told ABC.
Eastman previously worked with other Trump allies to push Wisconsin officials to decertify the state's election, writing an eight-page analysis last December claiming that if there was "acknowledged illegality" in an election then the result of the election could be nullified and the legislature could then choose new electors "as it sees fit," according to Rolling Stone.
After the March meeting, Vos reiterated that the election could not be decertified. He has nonetheless has played a key role in ginning up election-related conspiracy theories in Wisconsin. He has pushed claims of widespread election fraud and hired election conspiracist Michael Gableman to lead a taxpayer-funded investigation into the 2020 race. Gableman, who spoke at a pro-Trump "Stop The Steal" rally before he was hired, last month presented a preliminary report echoing numerous debunked conspiracy theories and called on the legislature to decertify the results, even as Vos and legal experts explained there was no legal mechanism to do so. Gableman also called for the prosecution and possible imprisonment of election officials who refused to cooperate with his probe. A judge last month found Vos in contempt of court for refusing to release records from Gableman's investigation. Vos last week released 20,000 pages of previously-deleted emails showing extensive contact with election conspiracy theorists who were seeking ways to undo Trump's loss.
Eastman has also been active in other states. He joined a group of Colorado election deniers in February for an "emergency town hall meeting" at which participants baselessly accused Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, of "participating in an election fraud conspiracy," according to ABC News. Eastman bragged at the meeting about his role in election lawsuits in Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin, accusing those who oppose the effort of "pure evil."
Eastman has previously said he met with Trump allies at the Willard Hotel one day before the Capitol riot, where the Republican's supporters convened a "war room." He was among the speakers at Trump's "Save America" rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, shortly before the Capitol assault began.
Trump has also pushed Wisconsin to decertify the 2020 election.
"Speaker Vos should do the right thing and correct the Crime of the Century — immediately!" the ex-president said in a statement last month. "It is my opinion that other states will be doing this, Wisconsin should lead the way!"
Trump has been in contact with "multiple" people working on the effort, according to ABC, and receives "regular updates" from MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has sunk millions of his own money into pushing widely-debunked election claims.
"The coup attempt is ongoing," tweeted journalist Christopher Ingraham. "I hope I'm wrong, but all signs point to 2024 being a massively destabilizing event that nobody is preparing for, aside from the coup plotters."
Radio host and Salon contributor Dean Obeidallah called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to act to prevent the hijacking of democracy, echoing the growing frustrations of Biden and members of the Jan. 6 committee over the Justice Department's reluctance to pursue charges against Trump and his inner circle.
"The COUP is not over," he wrote, "and it will NEVER be unless Trump and his co-conspirators are prosecuted."
The Office of Lawyer Regulation recommended that Gableman lose his law license for 3 years, due to his conduct in an investigation of the 2020 election
Crawford's recusal leaves an even split between liberal and conservative justices deciding whether Gableman's law license should be suspended over his 2020 election investigation
Your Right to Know: How cost is used to deny access to records
"Officials at all levels of government are well aware that prohibitive costs can lead to would-be records requesters relinquishing their rights rather than risking high legal fees." - Bill Barth
By Bill Barth
There’s good news and bad news in a recent Wisconsin Court of Appeals decision upholding an open records judgment related to the ridiculous and ham-handed investigation into alleged 2020 election fraud headed by former Supreme Court justice Michael Gableman.
Bill Barth
On the good news side, the appellate court upheld a lower court ruling that the state of Wisconsin must pay…
Speaker’s sin? Not overturning 2020 election!
Donald Trump would endorse a Big Mac if it ran against Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos. The cult-like wing of his party (for, let’s face it, Blaska — it IS his party) keeps trying to unseat Vos by hook or (sometimes, it seems) by crook.
The Republican leader may have passed tax cuts, only to be vetoed by the Democrat serving as governor. Vos…
Today is a hinge moment in the political history of Wisconsin: we go from a far-right state Supreme Court majority to a progressive one. At
Ben Wikler for Daily Kos:
Today is a hinge moment in the political history of Wisconsin: we go from a far-right state Supreme Court majority to a progressive one. At 5pm CT, Janet Protasiewicz—who won the April 4 election—will be sworn in. The path here is a testament to the power of grit.
The last time Wisconsin had a progressive Supreme Court majority was in 2008. That spring, an absolutely vicious and racist campaign by conspiracy theorist Michael Gableman defeated incumbent Justice Louis Butler—the first Black Justice in Wisconsin history.
Gableman’s defeat of Butler was the first time since 1976 that an incumbent Supreme Court justice had lost reelection. Butler—like all Wisconsin incumbents who’ve lost since the 19th Century—hadn’t been elected; he’d been appointed to the Court to fill a vacancy, in 2004.
Gableman’s race-baiting campaign changed Wisconsin politics. “2008 marks the beginning of the conversion of Wisconsin judicial politics to just an extension of partisan politics by other means,” as a UW professor said later
[...]
In 2018, Michael Gablemen—the conspiracist elected in 2008—decided not to run for reelection. That left an open seat. Judge Rebecca Dallet, a progressive dynamo, launched her campaign. Progressives rallied. On April 3, Dallet won—in an 11-point landslide.
After Dallet’s win, the GOP still held a 4-3 majority. And the next year, Wisconsin’s storied Chief Justice, Shirley Abrahamson—the first woman on the Court, a legal legend, and a progressive—retired after 43 years, leaving an open seat for the 2019 election.
That race was a heartbreaker. The more progressive candidate, Lisa Neubauer, was ahead for most of the race—but then a GOP dark money group flooded the state with cash in the final stretch and pulled out a 0.4%-margin victory in the final days.
Wisconsin’s court was now, once again, 5-2 conservative.
I was knocking on doors for Lisa Neubauer while running for state party chair, and was elected just after that defeat. Like every Democrat in the state, I vowed to do all I could to avoid ever repeating that loss.
In 2020, the pandemic struck. Dan Kelly, a far-right Walker appointee to the Court, was up for his first election to hold his seat that April.
[...]
There were no Supreme Court races in 2021 and 2022. But going into 2023, we now had a 4-3 conservative court, meaning that a victory would flip the court’s majority—because a GOP Justice was retiring, leaving the seat open.
Dan Kelly entered the race again, along with another MAGA extremist. There were also two progressives in the primary, so the WisDems was neutral until the February 21 primary results were announced. That kicked off a 42-day race between Kelly and Milwaukee Judge Janet Protasiewicz.
Today is a great day in Wisconsin, as the 15-year disastrous right-wing majority of the state's Supreme Court has ended. With Janet Protasiewicz being sworn in today, the liberal majority has returned to Wisconsin's highest court. #WISC
