Special Counsel in Wisconsin 2020 Election Investigation Asks Court to Require Cooperation from Mayors of Green Bay and Madison

Michael Patrick LeahyDecember 7, 2021

The Wisconsin General Assembly’s investigation into 2020 election irregularities continued to gather steam last week as Special Counsel and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman zeroed in on the mayors of Green Bay and Madison for their failure to cooperate with the investigation.

On Monday, November 29, Gableman, in his capacity as Special Counsel for the Wisconsin General Assembly’s investigation into the 2020 election, filed a “petitition for the writ of attachment of the person” in Waukesha County Circuit Court requiring Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway “to fulfill her legal duties in responding to” a subpoena that required the “delivery of certain documents and for testimony.”

The original subpoena required Rhodes-Conway to comply by October 22, 2021 in Waukesha County. That date was extended to November 15, but, the court filing states, “Satya Rhodes-Conway did fail to appear on November 15, 2021 without justification.” Gableman requested:

…the Waukesha County Circuit Court issue a writ of attachment on the person of Satya Rhodes-Conway and order the Waukesha CountySheriff to execute such commitment until Satya Rhodes- Conway has fulfilled her legal duties in responding to said subpoena.

A similar petition for a writ of attachment of the person was reportedly filed in the court under the same case number requiring the same cooperation from Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich.

A writ of attachment is defined as “a court order directing a sheriff (or other law enforcement officer) to seize property of a defendant which would satisfy a judgment against that defendant,” according to dictionary.law.com. Sources familiar with Wisconsin state law tell Breitbart News that a “writ of attachment of the person,” is not a request to jail that person, but instead is a request to compel that person to appear, either for a court hearing or a deposition.

On Thursday, December 2, Jeffrey Mandel, an attorney who represents the City of Green Bay and its employees, responded to what he said was “testimony before the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, [by] Special Counsel Michael Gableman [yesterday in which he] revealed that he had filed pleadings in this Court seeking an order to commit Mayor Genrich into custody at the Waukesha County Jail,” in a letter (but apparently not a court filing) to Judge Ralph Ramirez of the Waukesha County Circuit Court:

Mayor Genrich respectfully requests that this Court either: (1) dismiss the Special Counsel’s Petition without further proceedings or, in the alternative, (2) either consolidate this matter with the current litigation pending in Dane County or order a briefing schedule and hearing that will allow the parties to fully address the issues raised in the Petition and any rulings issued in ongoing and overlapping litigation.

Sources familiar with civil procedure tell Breitbart News that responding to a petition filed with the court via a letter rather than in an official filing with the court may signal that the attorney who wrote the letter is attempting to question the legitimacy of the court proceeding.

Gableman was appointed as the special counsel for the investigation into 2020 election irregularities by Wisconsin Speaker of the Assembly Robin Vos (R-63) this summer.

“Investigations must not pre-judge people or evidence. Therefore, we are willing to discuss potential evidence with anyone who believes they have evidence,” Gableman said in a video released by the Office of Special Counsel in September in which he outlined “the paramaters of the investigtion,” into the 2020 election, and, as Breitbart News reported, went on to say:

In trying to determine if the election was conducted properly, it is the duty of the public officials who are paid to run the election to answer questions and demonstrate that their management of the election was proper. If they refuse to cooperate, we will compel them to answer questions. . .

My job as Special Counsel is to gather all relevant information, and while I will draw my own conclusions, my goal is to put everything I know before you, the citizen, so that you can make up your own mind. An obstruction of this office is an obstruction of you.

As Breitbart News reported:

Joe Biden was certified the winner of the November 3, 2020 Wisconsin election on November 30, 2020 by a margin of 20,682 votes, receiving 1,630,866 votes to Donald Trump’s 1,610,184 votes out of 3.3 million votes cast.

Wisconsin was one of several key battleground states in which Joe Biden was narrowly certified the winner in the 2020 presidential election. Wisconsin’s ten Electoral College votes were awarded to Biden and contributed to his 306 to 232 Electoral College victory, which was confirmed in a joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021.

Wisconsin was also one of several states at the center of the controversy over the private funding of election administration in 2020.

The private funding of election administration during the 2020 election was highly controversial. Mark Zuckerberg’s $419 million donation to two nonprofit organizations was at the center of that controversy in Wisconsin. $350 million of Zuckerberg’s donations went to the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), whose activities in Wisconsin will likely be scrutinized by the Special Counsel’s investigation.

Democrats have vigorously opposed any cooperation with the Wisconsin General Assembly investigation led by Special Counsel Gableman.

On October 11, Wiscsonsin Attorney General, Josh Kaul, a Democrat, held a press conference in which he stated the Wisconsin General Assembly’s investigation into the 2020 election was a “fake investigation,” as CBS 58 reported:

“My request to Speaker Vos is simple, shut this fake investigation down,” Kaul said. . .

“Frankly, no serious investigator would conduct an investigation under these circumstances, and no one should treat the results of this investigation as credible,” Kaul said.

Vos, in a statement, said he’s not going to back down and said the investigation will go on.

Days after that statement by Kaul, the MacIver Institute, Wisconsin’s free market think tank, responded:

Emails obtained in a Freedom of Information Act Request revealed last spring that CTCL’s Wisconsin lead, a former Democrat campaign operative named Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein, had essentially taken over election planning and operations from [Green Bay] City Clerk Kris Teske. This was, of course, highly unlawful, and Teske ultimately quit in disgust.

In Milwaukee, Election Commission Director Claire Woodall-Vogg was so deeply entwined with Spitzer-Rubenstein that she was giving him daily updates on get-out-the-vote efforts. Spitzer-Rubenstein even asked for access to Milwaukee’s voter database!

All of this was an obvious effort to maximize turnout in heavily Democratic cities in one of the nation’s key swing states; and partisan organizations infiltrated and eventually led local governments in helping to elect a Democrat president. There is perhaps nothing more antithetical to the concept of a fair election.

Wisconsin Spotlight published an investigative report into the role the CTCL played in the private administration of the 2020 election in April:

Chicago-based CTCL used $350 million in donations from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife to fund grants to help cities deliver a “safe, inclusive, and secure voting process in 2020 elections.”

The city of Waukesha, with a population of 72,000 people, eventually received a CTCL grant for $42,000, according to elections officials. Racine, slightly larger, got a grant for $942,000 — $900,000 more — than Waukesha. It was part of $6.9 million in total CTCL grant funding to the five largest cities.

Green Bay, a city of about 104,000 residents, was awarded nearly $1.1 million in the first wave of grants in July. It received another half million dollars in September. The combined $1.6 million in CTCL grants amounted for more than four times Green Bay’s 2020 elections budget.

Judge Ralph Ramirez is the presiding judge in the case considering the petition for a writ of attachment of the person of Mayor Rhodes-Conway and Mayor Genrich, as well as the recipient of the December 2 letter from the attorney representing the City of Green Bay and Mayor Genrich.

A hearing on the December 2 letter is scheduled for this Friday, December 10. A hearing on the petition for the writ of attachment of the person of Mayor Rhodes-Conway and Mayor Genrich is scheduled for December 23.

The case is Gableman v. Rhodes-Conway, No. 2021FG605 in Wakesha County Circuit Court, Wisconsin.