Wisconsin GOP Lawmaker Hiring Retired Cops to Probe 2020 Election

A top Wisconsin Republican is hiring three former police officers to investigate parts of the 2020 election.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,  Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says the retired police officers will spend three months on the taxpayer-funded investigation.

Vos maintained he is not trying to change the results of the election and said he recognizes President Joe Biden won Wisconsin. 

He said he hopes the investigators can get to the bottom of issues Republicans have raised unsuccessfully in court.

“Is there a whole lot of smoke or is there actual fire? We just don’t know yet,” Vos said.

He said he was giving the three investigators a broad mandate to review all tips and check out the most credible ones. He said they may look into claims the state’s largest cities used more than $6 million in grants from a private group to run their elections and allegations of double voting.

An attorney will oversee the investigation and will provide him with a report by the fall.

The investigators will have subpoena power since they are contractors with the legislature, the Journal Sentinel reported.

While not ruling out the possibility the investigators could refer some matters to prosecutors, Vos said he wants to determine what laws should be changed rather than find people the investigators believe have broken the law.

“My hope is that they come back and they build the case to show Gov. (Tony) Evers and the Democrats who are in the ‘Casablanca’ mode — ‘nothing to see here,’ ‘everything’s fine,’ ‘they just want to suppress the vote.’ No. These are professional investigators,” Vos said.

“A sizable chunk of people believe the election was illegitimate. And democracy cannot flourish if both sides don’t believe in the end both sides had a fair shot. “The election’s already over,” he said. “My job is to be frustrated with the result, which I am, especially with what’s going on in Washington, D.C. … My job is to say where are the laws being followed, where are they not? If they’re not being followed, how can I fix it?”

But Ann Jacobs, a Democrat who leads the Wisconsin Elections Commission, was critical of the investigation.

“I think it’s unfortunate that the legislature is using its resources to investigate what has already been thoroughly investigated and it is my hope that instead they could work toward expanding opportunities and ease of voting for Wisconsin voters,” she said.

Meanwhile, the results of a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday show that 66% of Republicans believe the 2020 election was “stolen” by Biden and the Democrats.

“The numbers fly in the face of any predictions that Donald Trump’s political future is in decline,”  Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said. “By a substantial majority, Republicans: (1) believe the election was stolen from him, (2) want Trump to run again, and (3), if they can’t vote for Trump, prefer someone who agrees with him.”

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