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Gableman reveals full team, trades barbs with Dems in tense hearing

MADISON (WKOW) -- The man appointed by Assembly Republicans to conduct their investigation into the 2020 general election named on Wednesday each of the 10 people he's hired in the taxpayer-funded review.

Retired state Supreme Court justice Mike Gableman appeared for the second time before lawmakers since he was named the lead investigator this summer by Speaker Robin Vos. 

Addressing the Assembly's elections committee, Gableman once again accused officials in Madison, Green Bay and Milwaukee of ducking his subpoenas seeking their clerks and mayors to answer questions about how they used private money to run the elections last fall.

A string of court challenges and recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties maintained President Joe Biden won the state by more than 20,000 votes over former President Donald Trump.

A lengthy report from the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureaufound no evidence of widespread fraudor errors that would've changed the outcome of the election.

"[Green Bay Mayor] Eric Genrich and [Madison Mayor] Satya Rhodes-Conway have chosen to ignore the subpoenas issued by the Wisconsin Assembly," Gableman said. "Because they have no intention of answering uncomfortable questions about how they ran their elections."

City officials have for weeks resisted the idea of being deposed by Gableman outside of the public eye. Gableman repeated at Wednesday's hearing he had no plans of conducting the depositions in public.

Madison City Attorney Mike Haas shared a letter dated November 2 that indicated city officials had no intention of meeting with Gableman until the two parties agreed on a format and length for the interview; Haas said Gableman's team did not respond to the letter. 

“We’ve been clear all along that we are proud of our work on elections and happy to talk to anyone about it. We’ve provided Atty. Gableman with reams of documents, in addition to responding to numerous open records requests," Rhodes-Conway said in a statement. "It’s been clear all along that this is not a serious investigation – it’s basically a temper tantrum by people who are upset with some of the results of the Nov. 2020 election. Madison ran a safe, free and fair election in the middle of the pandemic."Gableman remained focused on the money cities received from the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL); out of the $10.3 million about 200 Wisconsin communities received, about 85 percent of it went to the state's five biggest cities.

Conservatives have argued that unfairly benefited get-out-the-vote efforts in Democratic-leaning cities while clerks in those communities have maintained it helped them run safe elections during a pandemic that saw an unprecedented increase in absentee voting.

The CTCL is largely funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.

"Reasonable minds might wonder whether the millions of dollars each of these mayors received from the Zuckerbergs may have induced them to do something other than treat all candidates fairly and impartially," Gableman said. 

Gableman Names Full Investigative Team

Who's on the team

While Gableman has pilloried the cities over what he called a lack of transparency around their use of CTCL dollars, until Wednesday he had refused to say who was working for him.

That changed at the hearing.

Gableman listed each of the 10 people he's hired, what they're making, and how long they've been part of the investigation:

  • Gableman himself has been acting in his role of Special Counsel since July 1, collecting a salary of $11,000/month
  • Carol Matheis is a California-based lawyer for The Federalist Society. She's been making $5,000/month since Sept. 1
  • Andrew Kloster is a DC-based lawyer who previously served in the Trump administration. He's been making $5,000/month since Sept. 1
  • Zak Niemierowicz has been working as an administrative assistant since Sept. 1 making $4,000/month
  • Ron Heuer has been focusing on claims of fraud in nursing homes. He's been making $3,250/month since October 1. He's president of the Wisconsin Voter Alliance,which sued to block certification of the 2020 election
  • Cliff Lancaster is an Arkansas attorney. His website makes no mention of election expertise but does note he once represented two people on the MTV reality show '16 and Pregnant.' He started on November 1 and is making $10,000/month
  • Gary Wait is a former private investigator in Door County and made $3,250/month between Sept. 1 and November 1
  • Three former Milwaukee Police Detectives, all making $40/hour -- Thomas Obergon has been working since November 1, Neil Saxton worked between November 1 and November 21, and Edward Chaim started on November 27
  • One person remained confidential; Gableman said it was to avoid problems for that person with their current employer

Democrats honed in on the right-wing ties for many of the staffers, particularly Heuer.

"It seems that you are firmly in the lane of suggesting that the outcome of the election should've been overturned," Rep. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) told Gableman.

"Now I'm gonna stop you right there, Mr. Spreitzer! I'm not gonna let you put words in my mouth for your cheap political advancement," Gableman snapped back. "I never said anything about overturning any election."

The back and forth continued throughout the one-hour hearing. Gableman did not answer questions from reporters afterward, saying he was on a tight schedule.

The question of whether city officials should answer questions in private is at the center of a suit brought by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, whose case argues Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe should only have to be deposed by Gableman in public. The next hearing in that Dane County case is scheduled for December 23. 

More at WKOW 27 News


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