Court regulators call for sanctions against Michael Gableman for election investigation

Wisconsin’s Office of Lawyer Regulation says former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman violated several court conduct rules during his investigation into President-elect Donald Trump’s 2020 loss.

The regulators are recommending unspecified sanctions for Gableman, which would have to come from current Supreme Court justices including some who sat alongside him on the bench.

The complaint includes 10 counts which accuse Gableman of violating rules of professional conduct for attorneys. Those include:

• Submitting court filings aimed at compelling mayors of Green Bay and Madison to testify about the 2020 election without telling a judge his team had agreed to waive depositions in exchange for election-related documents from those cities. 

• Falsely accusing Wisconsin Elections Commission Administrator Meagan Wolfe and city officials of a “coverup” regarding private grants used to assist local governments with administering the election amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• Violating Wisconsin’s open records law.

• Questioning the integrity of a Dane County judge while also demeaning an attorney in an open records lawsuit court hearing.

• Not telling state lawmakers about his intent “to pursue personal interests” during the investigation and working to publicly pressure Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to expand the expense and scope of the investigation. 

• Giving false statements to the Office of Lawyer Regulation, or OLR, claiming he did not give legal advice or represent the Wisconsin Assembly during the 2020 election investigation. 

The complaint stems from Gableman’s time as head of the “Office of Special Counsel,” which was created by Vos, following false statements from Trump that his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden was the result of widespread election fraud.

Vos hired Gableman in 2021 to lead the investigation one day after Trump accused him and other legislative leaders of “working hard to cover up election corruption” in Wisconsin. The following year, Vos fired Gableman after the former justice endorsed Vos’ primary opponent.

The complaint asks the state Supreme Court for unspecified sanctions against Gableman. Vos has called Gableman an “embarrassment to the state,” and said he regretted hiring him. In March, Vos called for Gableman to be “disbarred.” 

Gableman did not respond to email requests for comments on the complaint. 

Gableman investigation was subject to open records lawsuits, contempt holding

Gableman’s election investigation was the subject of several open records lawsuits filed by liberal watchdog group American Oversight. Those resulted in an order from Dane County Circuit Court Judge Frank Remington demanding Gableman stop deleting records.

During an especially contentious hearing in June 2022, Remington held the former Justice in contempt after Gableman accused the judge of being biased and wanting to put him in jail. In his written ruling, Remington called for Gableman to be disciplined for “misogynistic” comments about American Oversight attorney Christa Westerberg.  

According to the OLR complaint, the Assembly paid more than $2.3 million for Gableman’s 2020 investigation, which resulted in a report that suggested the Republican-controlled state Legislature should consider decertifying Biden’s win. Of the total, Gableman received more than $117,000 and around $1.8 million went to private attorneys hired to initiate court proceedings against Green Bay and Madison officials and defend his office in the public records cases. 

A spokesperson for Vos did not respond to a request for comment on the complaint.