Wisconsin Republican leader fires 2020 election investigator

After months of controversy, a leading Wisconsin Republican lawmaker cut special counsel Michael Gableman loose.

The Wisconsin Assembly fired Gableman, a former state Supreme Court justice tasked with investigating the 2020 election, on Friday — days after state Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican who survived a primary challenge by a Trump-backed rival, slammed Gableman as an “embarrassment” to the state and pledged to huddle with Republicans and consider scrapping Gableman’s election inquiry.

WISCONSIN ASSEMBLY SPEAKER BLASTS GABLEMAN AS ‘EMBARRASSMENT,’ MAY SCRAP ELECTION REVIEW

“After having many members of our caucus reach out to me over the past several days, it is beyond clear to me that we only have one choice in this matter, and that’s to close the Office of Special Counsel,” Vos told the Associated Press.

“For those like me who remain concerned about ensuring we have election integrity, we have a simple solution — to focus on our efforts to elect a Republican governor in November so we can pass the bills that were vetoed by Gov. [Tony] Evers,” Vos added.

Vos hired Gableman 14 months ago to investigate the 2020 election following an outcry from former President Donald Trump and his supporters over alleged election improprieties in the Badger State. Since then, Gableman became mired in a string of controversies from his review, which has now cost taxpayers upward of $1 million.

President Joe Biden triumphed over Trump in Wisconsin, winning 49.45% to 48.82% by about 20,000 votes. Trump alleged that voter fraud and irregularities took place in states that he lost, including Wisconsin. However, courts and election officials have broadly rejected the claims.

In the face of fierce criticism from Democrats and outside observers, Vos refrained from firing Gableman for months. In May, he announced a pause on Gableman’s inquiry due to a flurry of open records legal battles access overshadowing the investigation, but he permitted Gableman to retain half of his monthly salary during the hiatus.

Trump announced Gableman endorsed Vos’s primary opponent, Adam Steen, at a rally last week. Gabelman also recorded robocalls on Steen’s behalf arguing his election review made progress “in spite of” Vos.

“He’s an embarrassment to the state. I hired him on recommendations thinking we were going to hire somebody who was a good, articulate independent voice,” Vos proclaimed after his narrow victory over Steen on Tuesday, according to Center Square.

Much to the outrage of state Democrats, Gableman urged Wisconsin to decertify the 2020 election results due to his allegations of rampant malfeasance in the 2020 election. Although he did not publicly produce evidence of enough voter fraud to swing the election to Trump, Gableman has released multiple reports alleging wrongdoing in the election.

These include claims that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s donations to a group that assisted municipalities in adjusting election procedures to the pandemic amount to bribery. The Wisconsin Elections Commission has countered that Gableman’s reports were riddled with mischaracterizations of how the state conducts its elections.

Watchdog group American Oversight took Gableman to court on multiple occasions for his apparent failure to fulfill its public records requests. Earlier this summer, Gableman was hit with a $2,000 daily contempt fine in one of those cases until he proved that he turned over all available documents sought by American Oversight. The daily fine was eventually lifted after Gableman divulged additional information about his record-keeping habits.

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There have been at least four open records cases pending against Gableman. During one of those cases, he admitted in court to destroying some records he considered unnecessary to his inquiry.

The Washington Examiner reached out to a representative of Gableman for comment.