Judge orders records from Wisconsin's voter fraud probe after Trump's 2020 loss not be destroyed

A state judge in Wisconsin has declined to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to preserve records from a Trump-aligned former state Supreme Court justice's taxpayer-funded voter fraud crusade in 2020, reported the Associated Press.

"The lawsuit was one of several filed by liberal watchdog group American Oversight against former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman and the office of special counsel that he led," reported Scott Bauer.

"Assembly Speaker Robin Vos hired Gableman to lead the probe in 2021 under pressure from Trump and conservative Republicans in Wisconsin who were pushing for decertifying Biden's win."

Gableman's investigation quickly came under criticism from both Democrats and Republicans as the former judge engaged in increasingly erratic behavior, even trying to have the mayor of Green Bay and several other public officials arrested.

"Vos put the investigation on hold in April 2022 and then fired Gableman in August 2022 after he turned up no evidence to back Trump's false claims that the election had been stolen from him," said the report. "Vos fired Gableman just days after Vos won his primary over an opponent endorsed by Gableman and Trump. Vos called Gableman an 'embarrassment' to himself and the state."

"Even though the office has been unstaffed for nearly a year, it continues to fight open records lawsuits. Courts have repeatedly ruled against Gableman and his former office in those cases," said the report. "Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost on Monday affirmed with his latest ruling that the office formerly led by Gableman, and any future version of it, is subject to Wisconsin's open records law. Frost granted a temporary injunction against any deletion of records by the office and rejected the motion to dismiss, a request made nearly a year ago."

This comes a month after another Wisconsin election interference case moves forward. Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington ruled in May that a complaint against the fake Trump electors claiming to represent the state must be reheard.