Top Wisconsin Republican fires 'election fraud' investigator who demanded 2020 election be decertified: report

On Friday, The Daily Beast reported that Robin Vos, the Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly and one of the most powerful Republicans in the state of Wisconsin, has fired Michael Gableman, the former state Supreme Court justice he appointed to investigate former President Donald Trump's baseless allegations of voter fraud.

"Under pressure to open a probe, Robin Vos had hand-picked Michael Gableman, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, to lead one," reported Emily Hernandez. "But their relationship soured to the point where Gableman and Trump endorsed Vos’ primary opponent, who narrowly lost to Vos on Tuesday night. Vos, in turn, called Gableman an 'embarrassment to himself' and to the state."

"One catalyst for the firing was Gableman’s suggestion that Wisconsin lawmakers decertify the 2020 election, which is unconstitutional," the report continued. "Gableman even acknowledged privately to Vos that it was impossible. The probe, funded by taxpayers, became widely unpopular on both sides. One Republican senator said she had 'zero respect' for Gableman, and firing him 'would have been a better decision six months ago.'"

Gableman relied on heavy-handed tactics to try to validate Trump's conspiracy theories, at one point even trying to order the Waukesha County sheriff to arrest the mayors of Green Bay and Madison for not responding to his emails that went into their spam folders.

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As the probe has continued, legal troubles mounted for Gableman. He was held in contempt of court by a state judge for refusing to turn over records that were part of his investigation. And in June, he blew up at that judge in court, taunting the bailiff and daring court officers to arrest him — an action for which he may be in danger of losing his law license.

Gableman's probe was part of a number of controversial state investigations authorized by Republicans around the country, another being a privately conducted "audit" of votes in Maricopa County by the security firm Cyber Ninjas, that also failed to find any basis for overturning the election.