MADISON (WKOW) — A Dane County judge on Thursday ordered the team appointed by Assembly Republicans to investigate the 2020 election to stop deleting communications.
The ruling from Circuit Judge Frank Remington comes one day after court filings revealed former state supreme court justice Michael Gableman and his team of investigators have been deleting emails and text messages.
Wednesday's filing was the latest development in a lawsuit filed by American Oversight, a liberal group based in Washington, D.C. The group has previously succeeded in getting Gableman's team to turn over more than 700 pages of records in January and nearly 100 more in March.
Gableman was hired by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos last summer and given a taxpayer-funded budget of $676,000.
The court filings include a letter sent by American Oversight's lawyers to those representing Gableman. Gableman's lawyers said the office "routinely deletes documents and text messages that are not of use to the investigation."
Gableman's lawyer, Indiana-based James Bopp, Jr., argued Wisconsin's law requiring public entities to retain public records, including emails and text messages, does not apply to Gableman's office.
Bopp's letter acknowledged the legislature's in-house lawyers, the Legislative Council, has previously stated its belief the law does apply to Gableman's office but countered the council's letter "cites no precedent and provides no precedential value."
American Oversight wants Remington to modify his previous judgements ordering the Gableman team to turn over records and possibly consider additional punishment citing Gableman's "practice of continuing to delete records contrary to its novel and previously-rejected legal interpretations."
The group asks Remington to consider finding Gableman in contempt of court over the deleted records.
Gableman's "Office of Special Counsel" has presented two reports since its formal creation last summer, which has not included proof of widespread voter fraud that would have shifted the outcome of the election in Wisconsin where President Joe Biden was found to have won by more than 20,000 votes following a series of legal challenges immediately after the election and recounts in Dane and Milwaukee counties.
His reports have highlighted contentious areas already pointed out by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau and conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, like the decision to waive the special voting deputy requirement for nursing homes and how Wisconsin's biggest cities received a disproportionate share of funding provided by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which is largely bankrolled by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Records released thus far in the Gableman investigation show he'd been working with lawyers who've previously sued to block Wisconsin's 2020 results from being certified, including subleasing office space to their firms.
A hearing in the lawsuit is scheduled for next Tuesday.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been updated to reflect the temporary order issued by Remington Thursday
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