MADISON – A former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who cost taxpayers millions of dollars while conducting a fruitless review of the 2020 presidential election is refusing to testify before a state disciplinary board in a case alleging he violated rules governing attorneys’ behavior.
The state Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a motion Friday to compel former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to sit for a deposition in two weeks after Gableman canceled with short notice on a previously agreed upon meeting in February.
Instead of seeking an order to limit or stop the deposition, Gableman “simply had his attorney send an email saying he would not attend the deposition because of ‘5th Amendment concerns,'” violating state discovery laws, according to the motion.
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He instead sought to meet privately with the board attorney to “resolve” the matter.
Wispolitics.com was first to report on the ORL motion.
Donald Schott, an attorney for the board, argued in the motion that Gableman could invoke 5th Amendment privileges when facing criminal charges based on the allegations against him but cannot use the 5th Amendment to avoid sitting for a deposition before the state board.
Gableman is seeking to resolve the matter privately and is trying to raise money for his legal defense, according to Schott.
Gableman, who served one 10-year term on the state’s high court starting in 2008, was hired by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in 2021 to review the previous presidential election. The probe catapulted him to a national platform with election conspiracy theorists and made him a favorite of Republican former President Donald Trump, who was reelected in November.
But Vos has since said he regrets hiring the former justice. Taxpayers paid more than $2.3 million for the investigation, which yielded a steady drumbeat of explosive court hearings and rulings in lawsuits over his desire to jail election officials and mayors who refused to be interviewed behind closed doors, and his decision to ignore requests from the public for records related to his probe.
The OLR board filed a disciplinary complaint in November after the board received more than one complaint, including from Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington following a 2022 court hearing in a lawsuit filed over Gableman’s review during which Gableman shouted at Remington and refused to testify.
The complaint from OLR alleges violations of the Wisconsin Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys.
According to the OLR complaint, Vos and Gableman discussed that the review’s objective was to gather facts about the administration of recent elections and suggest potential legislative changes for the Assembly to consider.
The review never revealed any evidence of significant fraud or new facts related to the election not previously known. The 2020 election was run unlike previous contests because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some polling locations changed. Voters turned to absentee voting in unprecedented numbers, and ballots were mailed to nursing homes instead of being delivered by special poll workers who could assist residents.
Joe Biden beat Trump by nearly 21,000 votes out of 3.3 million, or 0.6 percentage points. Recounts and state and federal courts confirmed his victory.
The OLR complaint alleges that Gableman:
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Filed petitions containing false statements when he attempted to seize property from the mayors of Green Bay and Madison.
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Made false statements to and withheld information from a state Assembly committee regarding the responses from Green Bay and Madison’s mayors to subpoenas issued to them.
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Engaged in “disruptive behavior” at a June 2021 court hearing.
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Made false statements about the integrity of a judge.
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Made “false, derogatory and demeaning public statements” about opposing counsel.
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Violated the state’s open records law.
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Accepted his role in the probe without disclosing conflicts of interest.
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Abandoned his duty to former clients by publicly promoting efforts to recall Vos.
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Submitted a false affidavit to OLR.
Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Michael Gableman refusing to testify before lawyer disciplinary board
