MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is trying to block a liberal watchdog group’s attempts to have him identify records that were illegally destroyed related to the ongoing investigation into the 2020 presidential election.
Vos argues that he has no knowledge of any destroyed records that were requested by American Oversight, a response the group calls “non-responsive and evasive.” It wants Vos to be found in contempt of court.
Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn scheduled a Tuesday hearing on American Oversight’s request for additional information. She is expected to rule on the overriding contempt of court request after March 16, the deadline for both sides to submit their final arguments.
American Oversight has filed three lawsuits seeking various records from Vos and Michael Gableman, the former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice he hired to run the probe with $676,000 in taxpayer money. Vos, under pressure from former President Donald Trump, hired Gableman in June to conduct the investigation.
“Wouldn’t it be easier if you guys just helped us find the fraud instead of fighting against it?” Vos said during questioning by an American Oversight attorney, according to a transcript of his deposition filed by the group.
Only five people in Wisconsin out of more than 3.2 million who cast ballots in the 2020 election have been charged with fraud, and multiple reviews have shown there was no widespread fraud.
President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by just under 21,000 votes, an outcome that has withstood recounts, lawsuits and multiple reviews.
Still, Republicans are fast-tracking a wide array of election law changes, including bills that would install partisan attorneys at the Wisconsin Elections Commission, give the Legislature more control over elections and make it more difficult to vote absentee.
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is all but certain to veto all of the measures.
American Oversight asked the judge on Tuesday to order Vos to identify his open records request policies and procedures that were in effect at the time the group requested documents related to the Gableman investigation. It also wants the judge to order Vos to identify all responsive records that were deleted or destroyed.
American Oversight argues that Vos made no effort to determine whether records that should have been made public were instead destroyed.
The group has already questioned Vos and his office’s attorney, Steven Fawcett, in private. Fawcett also testified in open court last month, saying he didn’t review records Gableman turned over to see if they were response to American Oversight’s records request.
Vos tried to stop his own deposition, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered it to proceed and Vos sat for it on Jan. 12.
Transcripts of Vos’s and Fawcett’s depositions were also included in an American Oversight motion filed with the court last week asking for information about records that might have been destroyed.
The Legislature is not required to retain records unless an open records request has been filed. Both Vos and Fawcett said under questioning from American Oversight’s attorneys that they routinely delete emails and text messages.
American Oversight’s records requests were not always immediately forwarded to Vos staff members, leading to a delay that could have caused some of the records to be improperly destroyed, the group argues. In one case, Fawcett did not notify staff of an American Oversight records request for 13 days.
Vos, in his deposition, said he rarely looks at his official state email account where records requests are sent and he could not say how much time passes from when his office is alerted to a request and he is alerted to it.
According to the transcript in the American Oversight court filing, Vos repeatedly said he’s not aware of details about open records requests his office receives because there are so many of them. Vos said he delegates the responsibility of handling those to Fawcett.
Vos said that he didn’t know whether his searches had captured deleted texts or other communications over which he had control. For example, Vos said he doesn’t control his official Twitter account and doesn’t even know the password to access it.
“It’s far too negative with people on the left who do nothing but call swear words and just trash people and chastise individuals, so I actually told my staff to specifically not tell me the password because I don’t want to be able to access it,” Vos said, according to the transcript.
Vos also said he only communicates with Gableman by phone. Vos said he’s also spoken with Trump by phone and that is also the only way they communicate.
