Dane County judge holds Robin Vos in contempt over election review records
https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/dane-county-judge-holds-robin-vos-in-contempt-over-election-review-records/article_2671619a-b5e9-5eb8-bc13-8c6893af6aa4.html
Dane County Circuit judge has ordered that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos be held in contempt for failing to provide requested public documents related to the ongoing GOP-ordered review of the 2020 election.
Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn issued the ruling Wednesday following her previous order that Vos, R-Rochester, and the Assembly produce the records, which were requested last year by liberal watchdog group American Oversight. The requested documents include records created by contractors, including former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman, who is leading the review.
"Robin Vos had delegated the search for contractors' records to an employee who did nothing more than send one vague email to one contractor," Bailey-Rihn wrote. "Putting aside for the moment the impropriety of making a contractor responsible for a records request
Robin Vos did not tell that contractor which records to produce, did not ask any of the other contractors to produce records, and did not even review the records ultimately received. Still worse, the assembly did nothing at all."
Bailey-Rihn concluded that Vos and the Assembly, "after hearing and notice, have chosen to willfully violate a court order and are held in contempt."
Vos and the Assembly have been ordered to pay American Oversight's legal fees related to the contempt motion. Vos has 14 days to purge the contempt or begin paying a $1,000 daily forfeiture. In order to purge the contempt order, Vos and the Assembly need to provide evidentiary proof that they have complied with public records law.