kaardal, erick amistad TMS

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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">elector A?&nbsp; doug mastriano?
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" min-width="min-width" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Of course Leah Hoopes (Bannon's PA person) is involved! </span><img alt="" draggable="false" src="https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f92a.svg" class="r-4qtqp9 r-dflpy8 r-sjv1od r-zw8f10 r-10akycc r-h9hxbl" style="display: inline-block; height: 1.2em; margin-left: 0.075em; margin-right: 0.075em; vertical-align: -20%; width: 1.2em;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" /><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" roboto="Roboto" helvetica="Helvetica" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" break-word="break-word" min-width="min-width" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">

It's very considerate for them to give people an example of what to write.

The link to their "proof" (to base complaints on) of voter fraud is a link to an Amistad/Thomas Moore Society lawsuit.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/09/06/the-thomas-more-society-and-other-outside-groups-influence-on-partisan-wisconsin-election-investigation/">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/09/06/the-thomas-more-society-and-other-outside-groups-influence-on-partisan-wisconsin-election-investigation/</a></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This piece was written and published by American Oversight on September 2&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/in-the-documents-the-thomas-more-society-and-other-outside-groups-influence-on-partisan-wisconsin-election-investigation" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Days after being fired as head of the Wisconsin Assembly’s partisan investigation of the state’s 2020 election, Michael Gableman had listed as his new employer the Thomas More Society, a conservative legal organization that was involved in various efforts to cast doubt on the election’s results.</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Thomas More Society, which has for years also fought for more restrictions on abortion rights, had been mentioned in conjunction with the investigation at various points, including — as revealed in public&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/expense-records-reveal-new-details-about-wisconsins-partisan-election-investigation" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">records</a>&nbsp;obtained by American Oversight — for having subleased office space from Gableman. Prior to his termination by Speaker Robin Vos on Aug. 12, Gableman, as head of the Assembly’s Office of Special Counsel (OSC),&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/12/wisconsin-gop-fires-election-investigator-who-pushed-false-fraud-claims/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">pushed false allegations</a>&nbsp;of widespread voter fraud,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wpr.org/gableman-wants-jail-mayors-again-elections-probe" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">called for local mayors</a>&nbsp;and election officials to be jailed, and voiced support for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbs58.com/news/gableman-releases-findings-from-taxpayer-funded-election-review" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">legally impossible proposal to “decertify”</a>&nbsp;the state’s 2020 election results.</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Gableman’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2022/08/22/after-being-fired-robin-vos-over-election-review-michael-gableman-now-lists-conservative-law-firm-em/7865016001/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">newly announced employment</a>&nbsp;with the Thomas More Society raises serious questions about the extent of the group’s involvement in the inquiry.</b>&nbsp;In its investigation of OSC’s review, American Oversight obtained several documents that shed light on the group’s influence over Gableman’s work, as well as that of other outside groups and legal activists that had also worked to sow distrust of the 2020 election’s integrity — or to overturn the results.&nbsp;</font></span></p><h2 class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Thomas More Society and Other Outside Groups and Activists</font></span></h2><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The Thomas More Society is the parent organization of the Amistad Project, which bills itself as an election integrity project. Following the 2020 election, the Amistad Project played a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-01-24/former-kansas-attorney-general-phill-kline-led-effort-to-promote-fake-trump-electors-in-2020" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">role</a>&nbsp;in the coordinated, multi-state effort to submit to Congress&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/investigation/the-alternate-electors-plot-to-overturn-the-2020-election" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">false electoral slates</a>&nbsp;in support of Donald Trump. Erick Kaardal,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;a conservative lawyer and special counsel to the Thomas More Society, represented both that group and the Amistad Project in&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/thomas-more-jenna-ellis/2020/12/07/09057432-362d-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">several</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://legis.wisconsin.gov/assembly/22/brandtjen/media/1507/complaint-8-25-21-with-signature-pages.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuits</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;challenging the results of the 2020 election in&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/18472304/1/wisconsin-voters-alliance-v-city-of-racine/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Wisconsin</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;and&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.kwwl.com/news/politics/black-hawk-scott-county-auditors-facing-federal-lawsuit-from-conservative-group/article_a2f168e5-01bc-55b4-b8ed-dd19e342df32.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">other states</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, and public records revealed that his Minneapolis law firm, Mohrman, Kaardal, & Erickson,&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/expense-records-reveal-new-details-about-wisconsins-partisan-election-investigation" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">also subleased office space</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">&nbsp;from Gableman’s review.&nbsp;</span></font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kaardal also brought several lawsuits alleging issues with Wisconsin’s 2020 election, including a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/13/cities-argue-conservatives-lawsuit-over-elections-grants-should-dismissed/5968218002/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">September 2020 case</a>&nbsp;brought by the Wisconsin Voter Alliance (WVA) challenging&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/11/24/wisconsin-election-review-grants-cities-have-withstood-lawsuits/8528724002/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">election administration grants</a>&nbsp;given to Wisconsin’s five largest cities. That December, Kaardal filed a&nbsp;<a href="https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2021/01/04/federal-judge-tears-apart-election-lawsuit/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuit</a>&nbsp;against Vice President Mike Pence on behalf of WVA and other plaintiffs, an effort to prevent Pence from allowing Congress to certify the correct election results on Jan. 6, 2021. The federal judge in that case later&nbsp;<a href="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/klvykglxzvg/boasberg-referral-order.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">referred</a>&nbsp;Kaardal for an ethics inquiry for filing a “sweeping complaint filled with baseless fraud allegations.”</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In August 2021, Kaardal represented WVA, Wisconsin Rep. Janel Brandtjen, and the conservative Wisconsin group HOT Government in a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) that alleged misconduct in its administration of the 2020 election. Brandtjen chairs the State Assembly’s elections committee and is a vocal proponent of Trump’s stolen-election lies, having pushed for a&nbsp;<a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/brief/elections-chair-initiates-a-forensic-arizona-style-audit-in-wisconsin/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">fuller review</a>&nbsp;of Wisconsin’s 2020 results than the investigation authorized by Vos. Harry Wait, the head of HOT Government,&nbsp;<a href="https://journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/harry-wait-has-been-criminally-charged-online-court-records-indicate/article_8a4ff63e-2a32-11ed-98af-c7c29998861f.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">has been criminally charged</a>&nbsp;for having requested&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/29/politics/wisconsin-voter-fraud-harry-wait/index.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">multiple mail-in ballots in the names of other voters</a>, which he said he did to expose the ease of committing fraud.</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In November 2021, OSC employee Zak Niemierowicz&nbsp;said that Ron Heuer, the president of WVA,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wkow.com/townnews/law/gableman-investigators-group-previously-sued-to-void-2020-election-results/article_c2c1cacc-523a-11ec-b5c9-d7ddeeee4b3b.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">was one of five</a>&nbsp;staff members working for the review. The next month, Gableman&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wpr.org/michael-gableman-reveals-staffers-gop-backed-election-investigation" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">publicly revealed</a>&nbsp;the names of most OSC employees for the first time, including Heuer and Gary Wait, a brother of Harry Wait and a retired private detective.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/documents-from-wisconsin-election-investigation-reveal-contact-with-mike-lindell-other-partisan-activists" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Records obtained by American Oversight</a>&nbsp;that same month showed that Harry Wait was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21581210-ao_wi_selected_20220406#document/p134" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">in touch with OSC’s review</a>&nbsp;since at least the summer of 2021,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21398319-wisconsin-assemblys-office-of-special-counsel-election-investigation-records#document/p25" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">and an OSC email from October said</a>&nbsp;that he was “helping us with the Racine investigation.” Other records obtained by American Oversight include an unsigned contract between OSC and Heuer that states his work for the Assembly would include “reporting and working directly with Phill Kline,” the president of the Amistad Project.</font></span></p><h2 class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Oversight’s Investigation of the Election Review</font></span></h2><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gableman was hired to lead the Wisconsin Assembly’s 2020 election review in July 2021. He performed little substantive work during his first few months, later&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/wisconsin-assemblys-partisan-election-investigation-frequently-destroyed-public-records" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">testifying</a>&nbsp;in American Oversight’s lawsuit for records that, during that time, he “did not have a very sophisticated or intricate understanding” of election processes. Through the course of American Oversight’s investigation of OSC’s work, we have obtained numerous documents that point to the involvement of the Thomas More Society, Kaardal, and other outside groups active in elevating the Big Lie.</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/04/26/private-lawyer-plays-starring-role-in-taxpayer-funded-wisconsin-election-probe/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Public reporting</a>&nbsp;as well as other records released through American Oversight’s litigation show that Kaardal directly assisted Gableman with aspects of the review, although there is no evidence of any official contract between Kaardal and Gableman or OSC.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21398319-wisconsin-assemblys-office-of-special-counsel-election-investigation-records#document/p440" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Emails</a>&nbsp;suggest Kaardal participated in OSC calls as early as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21398319-wisconsin-assemblys-office-of-special-counsel-election-investigation-records#document/p440" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">October 2021</a>, and he and other associates of the Thomas More were in contact with Gableman&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21063307-wisconsin-rep-brandtjens-communications-with-external-entities#document/p1076" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">and Brandtjen</a>&nbsp;months prior.&nbsp;</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earlier that year, Kaardal was the featured speaker at an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wpr.org/republicans-renew-attack-election-grants-funded-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">invitation-only hearing</a>&nbsp;before Brandtjen’s committee, during which he discussed his lawsuits challenging the election administration grants. In April 2021, Kaardal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21063307-wisconsin-rep-brandtjens-communications-with-external-entities#document/p1076" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">emailed</a>&nbsp;a file called “Racine WI documents” to Kline and Luis Cornelio, an associate of the Thomas More Society, then sent the email to Brandtjen. Records later posted on OSC’s website in response to American Oversight’s litigation included more evidence of contact between OSC and the Thomas More Society, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wielectionreview.org/Content/files/records5/20220321111354270.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">an email</a>&nbsp;sent from the personal account of Jordan Moskowitz, the data and political director for the Wisconsin Republican Party, to Cornelio on Sept. 1, 2021, titled “Meeting with Justice Gableman.”</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In October, Kaardal’s firm helped draft subpoenas seeking information on election administration grants from local Wisconsin officials, according to other&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21398319-wisconsin-assemblys-office-of-special-counsel-election-investigation-records#document/p8" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">records</a>&nbsp;obtained by American Oversight. Similar subpoenas were issued by OSC in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/12/31/wisconsin-election-review-gableman-subpoenas-election-officials-and-municipal-departments-gop-electi/9064298002/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">January 2022</a>.</b></font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Also in October, Kaardal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21398319-wisconsin-assemblys-office-of-special-counsel-election-investigation-records#document/p432" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">emailed</a>&nbsp;Gableman to suggest that he hire the president of the public relations firm handling the Thomas More Society’s media requests, saying that he was “ready to discuss a PR role for the Office of Special Counsel.”</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In March 2022, Gableman presented OSC’s “Second Interim Investigative Report” on its findings before Brandtjen’s committee.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/key-takeaways-from-michael-gablemans-report-on-investigation-into-wisconsin-2020-election" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">Kaardal appeared beside Gableman</a>&nbsp;during the presentation, which featured a video of Kaardal interviewing&nbsp;<a href="https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/04/26/private-lawyer-plays-starring-role-in-taxpayer-funded-wisconsin-election-probe/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">his clients</a>&nbsp;— residents of long-term care facilities — about how they voted in 2020. Emails later posted to the review’s website show that Kaardal had drafted portions of that report, which floated the (legally impossible) action of “decertifying” the state’s 2020 election results.&nbsp;<b>Another&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wielectionreview.org/Content/files/records5/20220321111459805.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">email</a>&nbsp;posted to the review’s website suggests that the Thomas More Society had edited the video content for OSC.</b></font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Following Gableman’s presentation, Kaardal and Brandtjen both spoke at a Thomas More Society&nbsp;<a href="https://thomasmoresociety.org/view-hearing-and-press-conference-on-wi-assembly-committee-on-campaigns-and-elections/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">news conference</a>, where they alleged that Wisconsin election officials had broken the law while administrating the 2020 election and again voiced support for overturning the results. That news conference was introduced by Heuer, who said that WVA had begun working with the Thomas More Society on an “investigation,” which was how he was introduced to Brandtjen.&nbsp;</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span class="s1" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Aug. 17, 2022, WVA announced in an online post written by Heuer that Niemierowicz had begun working as an “administrator” for the organization. Heuer also wrote that he “had actually recruited [Niemierowicz] to work in the Office of the Special Counsel to work with Mike Gableman.”</font></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can read more about&nbsp;American Oversight’s investigation of Gableman’s election review&nbsp;<a href="https://www.americanoversight.org/investigation/wisconsins-baseless-investigation-of-the-2020-election" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>, including their findings on the inquiry’s taxpayer-funded expenses and its poor record-keeping practices.</font></span></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_xMsKFWYAE39t4.jpg" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_xMsKFWYAE39t4.jpg</a></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>wisc voters alliance v vp pence</b></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></div><div><b>Wisconsin Judge Denies Kanye West’s Bid to be on Presidential Ballot</b></div><div>His campaign could still appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.</div><div>
</div><div>By Shawn Johnson, Wisconsin Public Radio -<b> Sep 12th, 2020</b></div><div>Urban Milwaukee</div><div>
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</div><div>A Brown County judge has rejected rapper Kanye West‘s attempt to get on Wisconsin’s presidential ballot, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court could still have the final say.</div><div>
</div><div>In a decision handed down late Friday night, Brown County Judge John Zakowski ruled that West’s campaign missed the state’s deadline to file his nominating signatures.</div><div>
</div><div>Wisconsin law requires independent presidential candidates to file at least 2,000 signatures from eligible Wisconsin voters “not later than” 5 p.m. on Aug. 4. Multiple videos taken that day showed an attorney for West’s campaign entering the front door of the Wisconsin Elections Commission roughly 14 seconds after 5 p.m.</div><div>
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</div><div>West’s campaign argued that because state law sets at deadline of “not later than” 5 p.m., the signatures should count.</div><div>But the Wisconsin Elections Commission voted 5-1 to reject that argument and on Friday, Judge Zakowski upheld the ruling.</div><div>
</div><div>“The court finds that, basically, 5 o’clock is 5 o’clock,” Zakowski wrote.</div><div>
</div><div>Zakowski went on to compare the 5 p.m. filing deadline to a 9 p.m. cutoff for liquor sales.</div><div>
</div><div>“The court’s own personal experience is that at some stores the hour, minute and second hand appear on the check out screen,” Zakowski wrote. “When it is one second after nine, the alcohol cannot be scanned thereby preventing its purchase. In other words, any time after 9 o’clock means it is later than 9 o’clock and alcohol cannot be purchased, even at 9:00:59.”</div><div>
</div><div>West’s campaign could still appeal the decision to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where conservatives hold a 4-3 majority.</div><div>
</div><div><b>West campaign attorney Erick Kaardal didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Attorney Jeffrey Mandell</b>, one of the lawyers who challenged West’s petitions, said the court had recognized that the Wisconsin Elections Commission had studied the facts of West’s dispute and made the right call.</div><div>
</div><div>“As the judge recognized in his order tonight, the court is not to second-guess the WEC’s fact-finding,” Mandell said in a written statement. “The court is to ensure the WEC followed the law. Under nearly a century of settled Wisconsin precedent, late nomination papers cannot be accepted. It’s that simple.”</div><div>The state Supreme Court is also considering a lawsuit that would add Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins and vice-presidential candidate Angela Walker to Wisconsin’s ballot.</div><div>
</div><div>Staff at the Elections Commission recommended rejecting their petitions because hundreds of them listed an old address for Walker. Commissioners split 3-3 on the recommendation, which effectively rejected the Green Party’s effort.</div><div>
</div><div>If the Supreme Court decides to add either West or Hawkins to Wisconsin’s presidential ballot, it could delay the mailing of hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots.</div><div>
</div><div>County clerks said Thursday that they had already printed at least 2.3 million absentee ballots in an effort to meet a Sept. 16 state deadline to deliver them to municipal clerks, who are required to start mailing absentee ballots to voters by Sept. 17. A separate federal law requires clerks to mail ballots to military and overseas voters by Sept. 19.</div><div>
</div><div>If clerks are forced to reprint Wisconsin’s ballot to add new names, several said they’d miss those deadlines, a move Dane County clerk Scott McDonell said could undermine the integrity of the election.</div><div>
</div><div>Judge Rejects Kanye West’s Bid To Be On Wisconsin’s Presidential Ballot was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.</div><div>More about the Kanye West Campaign</div><div>Wisconsin Judge Denies Kanye West’s Bid to be on Presidential Ballot - Shawn Johnson - Sep 12th, 2020</div><div>Kanye West Booted From Wisconsin Ballot - Jeramey Jannene - Aug 20th, 2020</div><div>Election Staff Recommends Denying West’s Presidential Run - Jeramey Jannene - Aug 19th, 2020</div><div>Does Kanye West Live in Cody, Wyoming? - Melanie Conklin - Aug 11th, 2020</div><div>Kanye West Nomination Papers Too Late? - Shawn Johnson - Aug 11th, 2020</div><div>Kanye West’s Nomination Papers Challenged - Shawn Johnson - Aug 8th, 2020</div><div>Black Elected Officials Slam GOP, Kanye West - Graham Kilmer - Aug 6th, 2020</div><div>Republican Attorney Files Kanye West’s Nomination Papers - Shawn Johnson - Aug 5th, 2020</div><div>Read more about Kanye West Campaign here</div><div>
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2022/03/02/the-gableman-conspiracy-circus/">https://urbanmilwaukee.com/<b>2022/03/</b>02/the-gableman-conspiracy-circus/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">three and a half hours of conspiracy-laden testimony that included downplaying the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, recorded interviews with sleeping senior citizens and attacks on a number of election officials and organizations, former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman presented the “second interim report” of his partisan review of the 2020 presidential election on Tuesday to the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman, whose review has been widely derided as unprofessional, dangerous to democracy and extremely partisan, recommended that the state Legislature should disband the Wisconsin Elections Commission and decertify the results of the 2020 election — a move that has become a key issue for right-wing gubernatorial candidate Tim Ramthun, but legal experts have said is impossible and unconstitutional.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“At this point, I believe the Legislature oughta take a very hard look at the option of decertification of the 2020 Wisconsin presidential election,” Gableman said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The review has been operating at the direction of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Burlington) since last year and even though Gableman’s review has gone months past his original deadline without a contract with the Legislature after the initial one expired in December, he insisted that his review will continue, saying “this will not end.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman’s statement that his work will continue comes even though the Assembly has adjourned for the 2021-22 session. Gableman told Rep. Mark Spreitzer (D-Beloit) that his ability to continue working past the end of the session and without a contract is “complicated.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Numerous lawsuits, audits, recounts and reviews have repeatedly affirmed that Joe Biden won Wisconsin’s 2020 election. While Gableman was testifying, Democrats and Republicans issued statements disputing his assertions, calling his work a “circus,” an “attack on democracy” and a “fool’s errand.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“This circus has long surpassed being a mere embarrassment for our state,” Gov. Tony Evers</b> said in a statement. “From the beginning, it has never been a serious or functioning effort, it has lacked public accountability and transparency, and it has been a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, who Gableman repeatedly attacked in his testimony for filing lawsuits against the review over subpoenas issued against election officials, said the testimony is a stain on Wisconsin.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The Vos-Gableman investigation will long be remembered as a shameful, deeply embarrassing episode for our state Legislature,” Kaul said in a statement. “The Republicans in the Legislature who are responsible for this train wreck have an obligation to our democracy to condemn and end this preposterous fake investigation.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The condemnation of Gableman’s testimony didn’t just come from Democrats. After Gableman said he believes decertification of the state’s election is a valid avenue for legislators to take, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) said that’s an impossible move.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“It would have no practical impact [because] there is no Constitutional way to remove a sitting president other than through impeachment or incapacity,” Steineke tweeted. “Fool’s errand. Focus on the future.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Vos, who has been attacked from Wisconsin’s right wing for not doing enough to overturn the 2020 election results and said previously that decertification is impossible, praised Gableman’s work.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I’d like to thank the Office of Special Counsel for their tireless efforts in finding the truth,” Vos said in a statement. “They’ve done a good job at showing there were issues in 2020, and the report is intended to ‘help correct these processes for future elections.’ Unfortunately, we’re experiencing obstruction by ligation, and must first get through the nine separate lawsuits that have been filed to allow us to complete the review.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Despite his numerous accusations of criminal actions by elections officials across the state, most of Gableman’s allegations were theories that have bounced around Republican circles since the November 2020 election and have been repeatedly debunked by nonpartisan officials. In his hours of testimony, he only focused on a few sections of the 136-page report he filed to the committee just minutes before appearing.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Occasionally turning around to directly address the audience of supporters who came with him, Gableman alleged that members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) had broken the law by sending absentee ballots to nursing homes; that grant money accepted by the state’s five largest cities to assist with running the election amounted to “bribery” and that former adviser to President Barack Obama David Plouffe was involved in interfering in the state’s elections.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The opinions in the Special Counsel’s latest interim report were fixated on topics that have been thoroughly addressed,” WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe said in a statement. “The integrity of the November 2020 election, and of the WEC, has been shown time and time again through court cases and previous investigations.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As evidence for his claim that senior citizens were taken advantage of in 2020, Gableman showed video clips from a number of interviews his staff had conducted with nursing home residents and their families, who allege that elderly people were forced into voting by facility staff.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This claim, which has been frequently made by Republicans, stems from the allegations of Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the WEC chose to forgo the normal process of sending so-called special voting deputies into residential care facilities to assist with voting because visitors were being prohibited from entering nursing homes to protect residents from the virus. Schmaling has attempted to charge five of the six Wisconsin election commissioners with felony election fraud for not sending the deputies.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the videos, some of the residents appeared confused and one woman, surrounded by her family, was asleep. The family members were expressing surprise that their relatives were able to vote as attorney <b>Erick Kaardal, a member of Gableman’s staff,</b> asked a series of questions apparently meant to determine if someone is competent enough to vote.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One of the videos includes a clip of a woman saying she was surprised her mother had been voting off and on for the past ten years because she thought being institutionalized meant someone couldn’t vote anymore.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In fact, nursing home residents retain their right to vote even if they are under the guardianship of a relative. The only way for someone to lose their right to vote because of their mental capacity is if they’re declared incompetent by a judge.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“People in nursing homes are not required to complete push-polls to exercise their constitutional right to vote,” Democrat-appointed elections commissioner Ann Jacobs tweeted. “These interrogations by Kardaal are completely irrelevant to whether people have a right to vote. You are allowed to vote for a candidate for any reason you choose.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman also spent a long portion of his testimony laying out a number of tenuous connections between grants received by municipalities to assist with election costs and former Obama adviser Plouffe as well as billionaire philanthropist George Soros and various organizations aimed at assisting election administration.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Since November 2020, Republicans have highlighted more than $8 million in grant money that Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee and Racine received from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), an organization that is partially funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.<b> Gableman repeatedly referred to these cities as the “Zuckerberg Five” even though more than 200 jurisdictions in Wisconsin also received grant money from the group.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Through staff members at CTCL, the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research — which aims to help boost election security — and the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) — which is a collaboration between 30 states to help maintain accurate voter lists when people move or die — Gableman alleged a nefarious plot involving Plouffe, Wolfe and CEIR Executive Director David Becker to boost only Democratic turnout.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Gableman was especially focused on “A Citizen’s Guide to Beating Donald Trump” a book published in 2020 by Plouffe that Gableman alleges is a blueprint for stealing the election through private grants and increased use of absentee ballots.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Part of the grant money received by the municipalities was spent on helping with voter registration and absentee ballot requests from people of color, who have historically been prevented by voting through measures such as poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation and restrictive voter ID laws. Gableman said he found this suspicious because Black voters typically vote for Democrats and he doesn’t believe this group has ever been disenfranchised.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“They started using a phrase along the lines of ‘we have to target historically disenfranchised populations,’” Gableman said. “Historically, so sometime in the past, disenfranchised, disenfranchised means, you don’t have the right to vote. None of these voters, who are the targets of the Zuckerberg Five cities’ get out the vote campaigns, that I know, were disenfranchised. Everyone has the right to vote.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Why the focus, why David Plouffe and the Biden campaign and why did the CTCL money directed to the five cities, why did it focus on African Americans?” he continued. “Because as the Brookings Institute tells us, from November 2020, the headline ‘Black Americans have a strong preference for the Democratic Party.’”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman tied all of this to ERIC — which Wisconsin has been a member of for years because of legislation passed by Republicans and signed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker — through Becker, who helped found the organization. In the past, Republicans have said ERIC’s data is so accurate that it must be used to remove people from the state’s list of active voters.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Becker, who previously worked for the U.S. Department of Justice, repeatedly refuted Gableman’s allegations.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Failing to find any fraud, or any problem with the way [Wisconsin] election officials of both parties facilitated democracy, sadly Gableman now simply resorts to ad hominem attacks and guilt by association (and even that is false),” Becker tweeted. “It’s yet another sad day for American Democracy.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Later in the hearing, while taking questions from committee members, Gableman lashed out at Democrats who questioned his findings.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rep. Lisa Subeck (D-Madison) asked Gableman about his connections to Republicans, his previous statements that he believes the election was stolen and if he would eventually release all the documents that have been created as he’s conducted his review, to which Gableman responded by accusing Subeck of impugning his honor.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“You are questioning my integrity, and I must respond,” Gableman said, occasionally addressing her as “Ms. Subeck” instead of using her official title of “Representative.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I want to be judged, not on the fact that [Former Republican Gov.] Tommy Thompson appointed me [as a district attorney], even though I was an independent at that time, not a Republican or Democrat. I want to be judged on the quality of my work. And in order to do that, I have to show people what I relied on. If there’s a disconnect, well, then I have no credibility. And then this whole exercise has been pointless. Do I look or sound to you like a man who wants to do a pointless or illegitimate exercise?”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After Subeck tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to get Gableman to say whether or not he’d release all of his documents, the committee’s chair, Rep. Janel Brandtjen (R-Menomonee Falls) jumped in.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I would just like to remind people that this is not a Spanish Inquisition,” Brandtjen said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Gableman also spent a lot of time criticizing efforts to rein in his sprawling review and conduct oversight on his use of taxpayer funds. Those efforts include lawsuits filed by Kaul and lawyers for the mayors of the five cities he targeted to reduce the scope of Gableman’s subpoenas. Gableman has threatened to throw the mayors of the five cities in jail for failing to sit for private interviews.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In court, an attorney for Gableman stated that the work of the review is more important than the constitutional concerns raised by the subpoenas.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman and Vos have also been fighting open records requests filed by government watchdog American Oversight for the documents created as the review is conducted.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the report and in his testimony, Gableman said these efforts to shed light on how he’s digging through the state’s elections amount to obstruction.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Not only has the Wisconsin Attorney General intervened (and lost) in court to block certain subpoenas, and not only have left-wing groups provided support adverse to Wisconsin taxpayers — for instance by providing legal support to government employees seeking to keep their work secret, filing dilatory open records requests, and advancing frivolous complaints before various boards — but the Administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) has explicitly stated to the Chairwoman of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections that she is prohibited by law and by private contract from turning over certain public records,” the report states. “Until these lawsuits are resolved, there appears to be no way to fully vindicate the right of the people of the State of Wisconsin to know how their government is run. Such lawsuits have proved a costly and time-wasting exercise.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>After the hearing, the three Democrats on the committee said that the conspiracy theorists had succeeded in attacking Wisconsin’s democracy.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Today, conspiracy theorists got exactly what they wanted from the sham investigation overseen by Republican Speaker Robin Vos,” a statement from the Democrats said. “For hours, innuendo and wild accusations took center stage in the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections. Mike Gableman’s assertion that the Legislature should consider decertifying the 2020 election — which nonpartisan attorneys have determined is illegal — represents a direct attack on our democracy. The only people helped by promoting this reckless legal theory are people like former President Trump, who will stop at nothing to undermine faith in the election he lost.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Meanwhile, Mike Gableman made clear that he will continue his sham investigation at taxpayer expense, despite not having a written contract extension since 2021 to authorize his activity moving forward,” the statement continued. “Speaker Vos should take responsibility for this unaccountable behavior and make it clear whether or not Mike Gableman actually works for him, what his new deadline is, and how much more taxpayer money will be wasted on this partisan stunt. We must all be clear: Joe Biden won the 2020 Election. Donald Trump lost. It’s far past time for Republicans to move on.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In conspiracy-laden ‘circus’ Gableman attacks Wisconsin election administration was originally published by the Wisconsin Examiner.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More about the 2020 General Election</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump Calls For Nullification of Wisconsin’s 2020 Election - Henry Redman - Jul 12th, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Legal Fight Over Gableman Probe Keeps Growing - Shawn Johnson - Jun 30th, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Back In the News: Fake Elector Scheme Dogs Ron Johnson - Bruce Murphy - Jun 28th, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Judge Lifts Contempt Order for Speaker Vos - Rich Kremer - Jun 24th, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman’s Office Held in Contempt of Court - Madeline Fox - Jun 10th, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Murphy’s Law: The Bradley Foundation’s Election Deniers - Bruce Murphy - Jun 7th, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The State of Politics: ‘Telling The Truth’ Led to Knudson Resignation - Steven Walters - Jun 6th, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman Election Review $220,500 Over Budget - Henry Redman - Jun 2nd, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Another Judge Rejects Challenge to 2020 Election Grants - Shawn Johnson - Jun 1st, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gathering To Spread the Big Lie - Henry Redman - May 25th, 2022</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read more about 2020 General Election here</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/lawyer-loses-challenge-judges-ethics-referral-after-failed-election-lawsuit-2022-03-22/">https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/lawyer-loses-challenge-judges-ethics-referral-after-failed-election-lawsuit-2022-03-22/</a></div><div>
</div><div>mar 22&nbsp; 2022 reuters</div><div><b>Lawyer loses challenge to judge's ethics referral after failed election lawsuit</b></div><div>By Mike Scarcella</div><div>Court says Erick Kaardal's challenge premature</div><div>
</div><div>Kaardal's lawsuit for Wisconsin and other voters sought to stop Pence from counting electoral votes</div><div>D.C. judge dismissed "baseless" lawsuit</div><div>
</div><div><b>(Reuters) - A Minnesota lawyer on Tuesday lost his bid in a U.S. appeals court to block an attorney ethics inquiry spurred by a federal judge who quickly dismissed his "baseless" and "sweeping" lawsuit attacking the 2020 election.</b></div><div>
</div><div>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said attorney Erick Kaardal, a litigator at Minneapolis-based law firm Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson, acted too early to contest the judge's referral of him to the Washington, D.C., federal court's grievance committee. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's referral did not suggest whether any discipline should be imposed.</div><div>The appeals court called the referral "no different from a run-of-the-mill agency order initiating an administrative investigation." D.C. Circuit Judge David Tatel, writing for the unanimous panel, said such an agency order "initiating enforcement proceedings is nonreviewable."</div><div>
</div><div>Kaardal declined to comment on Tuesday. His lawyer, Channing Shor of Eccleston & Wolf, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.</div><div>Some lawyers in other cases that contested the 2020 presidential election also have faced ethics questions. A U.S. appeals court last month rejected an attempt from Sidney Powell and other lawyers to pause a trial judge's sanctions order.</div><div>
</div><div><b>The D.C. Circuit panel, which included Circuit Judges Ketanji Brown Jackson and Gregory Katsas, expressed some skepticism of Kaardal's claims at a hearing in December. Jackson, since nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, did not participate in Tuesday's opinion, a common practice for pending nominees.</b></div><div>Kaardal was counsel to the Wisconsin Voters Alliance and other plaintiffs suing then-Vice President Mike Pence to stop him from counting electoral votes that showed Joe Biden had won the race for the White House. Boasberg denied a request to enjoin Pence.</div><div>
</div><div><b>"To call the underlying action in this case ambitious would be an understatement," Tatel wrote in Tuesday's ruling.</b></div><div>
</div><div>The D.C. Circuit's order said "a referral to the committee on grievances neither determines whether an attorney will receive discipline nor what form that discipline may take."</div><div>
</div><div>Kaardal still will have a chance to contest any adverse decision from the grievance committee, the court said.</div><div>
</div><div>The case is Wisconsin Voters Alliance v. Harris, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, No. 21-5056.</div><div>
</div><div>For Erick Kaardal and Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson: Channing Shor and Justin Flint of Eccleston & Wolf</div><div>
</div><div>For amicus curiae: Matthew Etchemendy and Jeremy Marwell of Vinson & Elkins</div><div>
</div><div>Read more:</div><div>
</div><div>Texas regulators seek punishment for pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell</div><div>
</div><div>Appeals court says Sidney Powell can't dodge non-monetary sanctions</div><div>
</div><div><b>Lawyer who sued Pence faces dubious D.C. Circuit panel on ethics matter</b></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/blurring-of-lines-private-lawyer-plays-starring-role-in-taxpayer-funded-wisconsin-election-probe/">https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/blurring-of-lines-private-lawyer-plays-starring-role-in-taxpayer-funded-wisconsin-election-probe/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><h1 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.2; clear: both; padding-bottom: 10px;"><font size="4">Blurring of lines': Private lawyer plays starring role in taxpayer-funded Wisconsin election probe</font></h1><p class="subtitle" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; line-height: 32px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">With no contract and no official role, the work of attorney Erick Kaardal of the Thomas More Society dominates the 2020 investigation headed by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.</span></p><p class="undertitle" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span class="news-source" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Wisconsin Watch</span></p><p class="news-date" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"><b>April 27, 2022</b></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx pix</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">two-story office building in a Milwaukee suburb houses three entities that have led a months-long campaign sowing doubt about Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The gray, indistinct building in Brookfield lists about a dozen occupants, including a marketing company on the first floor, and financial services firms on the second.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But there are three occupants whose names are nowhere to be found: Special Counsel Michael Gableman, attorney Erick Kaardal and the Thomas More Society.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The three, led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Gableman, are collaborating on the $676,000 investigation into alleged election fraud launched by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Although he lacks a contract or official role in Gableman's taxpayer-funded investigation, Kaardal has become a de facto lead investigator. A Wisconsin Watch analysis shows roughly half of the chapters in Gableman's 136-page interim report are based on Kaardal's work.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Since September, the Minnesota attorney and the conservative Chicago law firm for which he works have subleased office space for about $3,000 a month directly from a company owned by Gableman.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A two-story office building with tinted windows is faced by bushes and leafless trees.]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This Brookfield office building is the headquarters for former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman’s investigation of the 2020 election. Attorney Erick Kaardal and the Thomas More Society are subleasing office space from Gableman’s company as they assist in the Assembly’s investigation. The building was photographed on April 13, 2022. (Credit: Matt Mencarini / Wisconsin Watch)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An office building interior shows a directory with the title "Executive Center," with fake plants arrayed in different locations of the space.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is the front lobby of the Brookfield office building, where former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman is running the Assembly’s investigation of the 2020 election. Gableman, attorney Erick Kaardal and the Thomas More Society’s names are not listed as occupants on the directory. It was photographed on April 13, 2022. (Credit: Matt Mencarini / Wisconsin Watch)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kaardal's and Thomas More Society's connections to — and potential influence on — Gableman's investigation stretch beyond 2,100 square feet of office space. As a private attorney, Kaardal also represents people under guardianship orders featured in Gableman's investigation — clients he charges are victims of "voter abuse."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, a member of the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, said he "absolutely" has concerns about the relationship between Kaardal, the Thomas More Society and Gableman.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Spreitzer also criticized the quality of the information Gableman has released so far, such as the suspiciously high voter turnout rates for nursing homes — claims that media organizations have debunked.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>"It's cherry-picked (data) at best, and simply wrong at worst," Spreitzer said.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mark Spreitzer shakes hands in the Wisconsin Assembly chamber.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Assembly elections committee member Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, says he is concerned about the role of Erick Kaardal and the Thomas More Society in the taxpayer-funded probe into Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election. He is seen at Gov. Tony Evers' second State of the State address at the State Capitol on Jan. 22, 2020 in Madison. (Credit: Coburn Dukehart / Wisconsin Watch)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman's office did not return a message seeking comment, and neither did representatives for Vos, R-Rochester, or Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, who is suing Gableman and Vos, arguing they lack authority to force officials to participate in the investigation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman's original contract expired at the end of 2021, but was extended through the end of April 2022. It now appears to be nearing a close. Gableman has said Vos intends to halt his investigation before the end of the month.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">'Pro-family' group shifts to elections</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For nearly 25 years, the Thomas More Society was best known for filing pro-life and “pro-family” litigation, including representing a California baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But in recent years, Kaardal and the Thomas More Society have become central figures in questioning the validity of the 2020 election — pushing theories that judges, audits and other reviews have rejected.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The society's funding has ballooned as it added election-related litigation to its focus areas. Its financial statement for the 2020 fiscal year, the most recent available, showed $17.4 million in revenue, up from $9.6 million the previous year.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That money has helped Thomas More file lawsuits in multiple states challenging how the 2020 election was administered, with a particular interest in the grant money to local municipalities from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, a Mark Zuckerberg-funded charity.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A screenshot shows Erick Kaardal speaking in front of a podium in a legislative hearing room, with observers seated in the background.]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Erick Kaardal delivers remarks to members of the Wisconsin Assembly elections committee at the State Capitol in Madison on March 1, 2022. Kaardal and the nonprofit law firm, Thomas More Society, are playing unofficial but central roles in the ongoing investigation into Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election. (Credit: Courtesy of WisEye)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Among Kaardal's other election-related lawsuits is a 2020 case against then-Vice President Mike Pence, Congress and others seeking to stop the Electoral College count that was so filled with "baseless fraud allegations and tenuous legal claims" that the judge filed an ethics referral against him. That matter is still pending.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In March 2022, as Gableman presented the findings in his interim report to the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections, he complimented Kaardal and the Thomas More Society, saying they'd done "very substantial and very wonderful work on behalf of the people of this state."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the tangled relationships raise questions about who Kaardal is really working for: himself and his clients, the Thomas More Society or the state of Wisconsin.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>'Unseemly' relationship?</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Much of what Gableman released in March repackaged previous work from Kaardal and the Thomas More Society, including video interviews with seven of Kaardal's own clients.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kaardal told Wisconsin Watch he provided the former justice with information that he gathered while preparing for lawsuits and complaints, but that Gableman didn't pass along anything his team had learned.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tom Brejcha, Thomas More Society's president, said in an interview that he saw no conflicts of interest with the connections and communications between himself, his law firm and Gableman. And he became angry when pressed to clarify those relationships.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We worked with him on the investigation," Brejcha said of the connection with Gableman, later adding that "we wanted to know the nature of the investigation and how we could help."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman had shared information with them, he said, but nothing that was confidential.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I'm sure we've exchanged information about matters of public concern," Brejcha said, adding that he's talked with Gableman "a handful of times but declined” to say how often or when they last spoke.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Peter Breen and Thomas Brejcha stand in a room with bookshelves in the background.]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Attorneys for the Thomas More Society, Peter Breen, vice president and senior counsel, and Thomas Brejcha, president and chief counsel, pose in their Chicago offices on July 10, 2013. The Thomas More Society is playing a central but unofficial role in the investigation into Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election. (Credit: Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>At one point, Brejcha accused Wisconsin Watch of launching an "attack" on Gableman. "I don't care to continue this anymore," he said, and eventually hung up.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jeff Mandell, a Madison attorney who specializes in election law, said it's an "unseemly" relationship between entities with different goals.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"There's certainly a blurring of lines," he said, "between what's supposed to be an independent government investigation and private, partisan actors."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>'Protect the people from the government'</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Kaardal has been a lawyer since the early 1990s and, in his own words, has made a career of suing the government.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"My viewpoint is that the most important thing for courts to do is protect the people from the government," he said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>He's filed dozens of lawsuits in state and federal courts — many of them over election administration.</b></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2012, Kaardal unsuccessfully challenged Minnesota's same-day voter registration procedure, which Wisconsin also has. That lawsuit also alleged that Minnesota residents who were under guardianship orders and ineligible to vote were able to register and cast ballots, a claim he's made in Wisconsin in recent months in complaints he filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The argument also failed in Minnesota, but Gableman included the allegations in his report and presentation in March.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 2019, Kaardal represented a group of landlords in Minneapolis and St. Paul in a federal lawsuit that argued ordinances that </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">required them to provide voter registration information to new tenants violated their First Amendment right to not speak.</span></b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kaardal and the landlords won.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">'Christian heritage' advocacy, ethics complaint</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As the 2020 election neared, Kaardal filed a flurry of lawsuits in multiple states.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>He sued over masks mandated for in-person voting in Minnesota, which he lost. He represented Kanye West in his attempts to get on the presidential ballot in Wisconsin, and lost.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">And in December 2020, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs including the Wisconsin Voters Alliance — part of a multi-state "election integrity watchdog" group — to prevent Pence and Congress from counting the electoral votes on Jan. 6, arguing that only state legislatures had the authority to certify the election.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The day after the election was certified, Kaardal voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C. But that didn't stop a federal judge from referring him to the Committee on Grievances for potential discipline. The judge called Kaardal's legal theory "somewhere between a willful misreading of the Constitution and fantasy." Kaardal is fighting the referral. He declined to comment on it.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Kaardal also co-authored several books, including a 2013 tome that advocated for preserving "“the Christian cultural heritage" of the United States through immigration policies that would limit the number of people who are not Jewish or Christian to no more than 10% of the population.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A book cover reads "The Rebirth Constitution: A Whole New Constitution for the Freedom Loving People of the United States" with a "Don</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In his 2013 book, Erick Kaardal, an attorney for the Thomas More Society, argues for a national immigration policy to limit non-Christians and non-Jews to less than 10% of the U.S. population. Kaardal is playing a central but unofficial role in the election investigation led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. (Credit: Amazon.com)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In an email, Kaardal defended his writing, saying, "The books, if one reads them, stand on their own as an attempt to contribute to current political philosophy."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Thomas More turns to elections</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Since the early 1990s, the Thomas More Society — which operates as a tax exempt 501(c)(3), the same nonprofit designation as Wisconsin Watch — has spent much of its time and resources on anti-abortion and self-described family values lawsuits. It is named after St. Thomas More, the patron saint of lawyers among Catholics.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The law firm successfully defended a maternity shelter in Missouri that fought a state mandate to provide insurance coverage for contraception. And during the pandemic, it represented churches that refused to abide by government-issued COVID-19 restrictions, getting victories for some of their clients.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In January, the firm won a $75,000 settlement for a Louisville, Kentucky police officer who was investigated for marching in uniform with protesters outside of an abortion clinic.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>A year before the 2020 election, the public interest law firm added "voter integrity" and "voter participation" to its mission statement for the first time. Kaardal told Wisconsin Watch that the group had seen election administration issues had "ripened" over the years and become "politicized</b>."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mandell, the election law attorney, said despite the society being new to election litigation, "They have certainly come with a vengeance for it in Wisconsin."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Election grants at heart of probe</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In his March presentation to the committee, Gableman adopted the society's oft-repeated claim that officials in five Democratic-leaning cities — Green Bay, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Madison and Racine — committed "election bribery" by accepting $8.8 million in grants.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman's charge is that officials in those "Zuckerberg 5" cities used illegal grant money from the Center for Tech and Civic Life — which went to more than 200 Wisconsin municipalities — to facilitate voting. The money went toward training additional election workers, adding secure ballot drop boxes, conducting voter education campaigns and other tasks.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The state election bribery law bans anyone from giving money, employment or anything else of value to entice someone to vote or not vote, or to vote a particular way. Gableman devotes nearly half of his 136-page interim report to these grants.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Michael Gableman speaks in a legislative hearing room with video cameras and their operators in the background.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Michael Gableman delivers remarks to members of the Wisconsin Assembly elections committee at the State Capitol in Madison on March 1, 2022. Roughly half of Gableman's report on his election investigation delivered that day was based on work by attorney Erick Kaardal and the nonprofit Thomas More Society law firm, who have no official role in the taxpayer-funded probe. (Credit: John Hart / Wisconsin State Journal)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Prior to the election, Kaardal filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin over the CTCL money, which a judge dismissed. After the election, he filed complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, which were also thrown out.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We can't have third parties using private money to influence cities to do an illegal ... election administration," Kaardal said. "And so that's why we're gonna win."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But so far, that hasn't happened.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>He's filed state and federal lawsuits over the CTCL grant money in at least five states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Georgia. Kaardal lost all the lawsuits filed before the election. Some suits Kaardal filed after the election remain pending.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Atiba Ellis, a Marquette University law school professor who specializes in election law, said grants to help municipalities run elections are accepted practice across the country.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Short of voters getting paid directly out of these grants, it seems difficult for me to make a connection between what the folks who are getting these grants are doing and credible claims or bribery," Ellis said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He said labeling the grants as election bribery is "a dangerous road to go down" because local governments rely on grant money to carry out all sorts of basic functions.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It's a "disservice to the law," Ellis said, "to suggest fraudulent behavior on the most tenuous evidence."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Spreitzer, the Democratic Assembly member, said he asked the Legislative Council for any case law supporting Gableman's bribery claim. He said there was none.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kaardal's self-styled competency tests</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A second major Kaardal and the Thomas More Society claim that landed in Gableman's report: that nursing home residents who lacked mental capacity to vote had cast absentee votes — a practice they call "voter abuse."</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In four cases, Gableman alleged that residents who had been found legally incompetent to vote had cast ballots, which raises questions about the validity of those votes.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But in other cases, Gableman relied on Kaardal's personal assessment to question a voter's competence.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That is not how Wisconsin law works, however. Only a judge in the context of a guardianship proceeding can determine whether a person has the mental capacity to cast a ballot, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Being placed under guardianship on its own does not remove a person's right to vote. And, "state law does not allow for the right to vote to be taken away, even by family members, without such an adjudication," the elections agency said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman included videos of Kaardal interviewing nursing home residents along with their guardians — who are also Kaardal's clients — in his presentation to the Assembly elections committee in March. He said he got his clients' approval before sharing them.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kaardal asked about a preferred choice between hypothetical candidates — one who wanted to raise taxes and another who didn't — as well as questions about what happens on Election Day and how a winner is picked. The befuddled residents often stumbled over their answers to Kaardal's sometimes long-winded questions.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A video screenshow shows Erick Kaardal speaking with Sandra Klitzke, seated in a wheelchair, while another person stands next to them, in a room with a television, tables and other furniture.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Erick Kaardal interviews nursing home resident Sandra Klitzke in a screenshot from a WisEye video played at a March 1, 2022 Wisconsin Assembly elections committee hearing. Klitzke's last name is misspelled on the video. (Credit: Courtesy of WisEye)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Gableman described Kaardal's test as "questions that are put out by the elections boards to help determine whether someone has the acuity to be able to make a knowing choice for voting. He's not making these questions up. They're standardized questions to determine if a potential voter has the mental capacity to vote."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But Kaardal described them much differently. He told Wisconsin Watch he found the questions online in a law review or medical journal article. While on the phone with a reporter, Kaardal searched for the article and its questions online, but could not find them.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>"I don't even know if I spent the time saving it, but I should have," he said. "... I found it online. If I searched a little bit more I could find it. But if you just put in 'competency assessment test for voting,' I think you'll end up finding where I found it.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The top Google search results for "competency assessment test for voting" include a Wikipedia article describing literacy tests that some jurisdictions used to disenfranchise Black voters for a long stretch of American history. Such tests have been banned for more than 50 years, since the passage of the Voting Rights Act</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">'Their voting rights must be upheld'</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Barbara Beckert, of the advocacy group Disability Rights Wisconsin, picked apart Kaardal's self-styled competency examination during the Wisconsin Elections Commission meeting in March.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Wisconsin does not require or allow voting tests that people must pass in order to vote — nor should they," Beckert said. "No voter in Wisconsin has ever (been) asked this type of question, and voters are never asked to explain why they vote for a particular candidate."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Federal law requires Medicaid-certified long term care facilities to support residents who want to vote, she said, "And we're concerned that as a result of these investigations, care facility staff are now afraid to assist residents with voting."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Beckert added that "It's discriminatory and unconscionable to disenfranchise Wisconsin citizens simply because they live in a care facility. Their voting rights must be upheld."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>After Gableman showed the videos during the March 1 hearing, Spreitzer said he submitted an open records request for the full, unedited version of the interviews. He was told Gableman didn't have them — raising yet more questions, Spreitzer said, about the role of Kaardal and the Thomas More Society in the investigation.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div><a href="https://urbanmilwaukee.com/people/erick-kaardal/">https://urbanmilwaukee.com/people/erick-kaardal/</a></div><div>
</div><div>Content referencing Erick Kaardal</div><div>Another Judge Rejects Challenge to 2020 Election Grants</div><div>Another Judge Rejects Challenge to 2020 Election Grants</div><div>State law didn’t prohibit grants from Mark Zuckerberg-funded non-profit, judge rules.</div><div>
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</div><div>Nov 24th, 2020 by Jeramey JanneneWisconsin Judge Denies Kanye West’s Bid to be on Presidential Ballot</div><div>Wisconsin Judge Denies Kanye West’s Bid to be on Presidential Ballot</div><div>His campaign could still appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.</div><div>
</div><div>Sep 12th, 2020 by Shawn Johnson</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">off bs</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>e<span style="font-style: inherit;">rick G. Kaardal is an attorney in private practice specializing in governmental relations as well as a special counsel for the Thomas More Society specializing in pro-life, family values, and election integrity cases through our Vote Legal Initiative</span></b><span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">. He is a litigator with trial practice who is admitted in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the U.S. Supreme Court, and various U.S. federal district courts and appeals courts.</span></font></div><div class="elementor-element elementor-element-f65d7a6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-theme-post-content" data-id="f65d7a6" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type="theme-post-content.default" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; width: 763.125px; margin-bottom: 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="elementor-widget-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: background 0.3s ease 0s, border 0.3s ease 0s, border-radius 0.3s ease 0s, box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s;"><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Kaardal was born in Redwood Falls, Minnesota and attended Harvard College on an U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship. He graduated from Harvard College in 1988 with magna cum laude honors in economics. At the same time, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserves.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After college, Mr.&nbsp;Kaardal&nbsp;attended the University of Chicago Law School where he met his future wife Alison Scott. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1992. After law school, Mr.&nbsp;Kaardal&nbsp;started as an associate lawyer with the law firm of Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis. In 1994, he joined a Minnetonka, Minnesota law firm of Trimble & Associates, Ltd. In 2000, he joined William F. Mohrman to form the law firm called Mohrman &&nbsp;Kaardal, P.A.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: inherit;">For many years, Mr.&nbsp;Kaardal, along with others at the firm, have focused on gaining experience by participating in over two hundred public law cases representing parties opposed to the government, government agencies and government bureaucrats. These cases have involved participation in about one hundred appeals in federal court, state court and agency proceedings. Mr.&nbsp;Kaardal&nbsp;has represented parties at hundreds of hearings opposed to governmental defendants in federal, state court and agency proceedings. Two of these cases have resulted in significant U.S. Supreme Court victories: Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002) and</span><b> Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky (2018).</b></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On June 12, in Bloomington, Minnesota, Life Legal Defense Foundation presented Mr. Kaardal with the prestigious “Defender of Life” Award for his work with the Thomas More Society as Special Counsel. Mr. Kaardal was recognized for his litigation efforts on behalf of citizens against the government in the subject area of abortion.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mr.&nbsp;Kaardal&nbsp;is a lawyer with a general approach attempting to protect his client’s interests. He attempts to identify and effectively resolve any of his clients’ legal problems. He works to apply his knowledge and experience in effective ways for his clients.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Mr.&nbsp;Kaardal&nbsp;served about 10 years as a field artillery officer in the Illinois Army National Guard, U.S. Army Reserves and Minnesota Army National Guard before retiring as a Captain. Mr.&nbsp;Kaardal&nbsp;is a past Secretary/Treasurer of the Republican Party of Minnesota, past Chairman of the John Adams Society and an Advisory Board Member of the Minnesota Chapter of the</span><b> Federalist Society.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> He has also been recognized by the Institute for Justice for an Outstanding Contribution to the Cause of Liberty. Mr.&nbsp;Kaardal&nbsp;and Alison Scott married in 1992. They have eight children. The oldest child Samuel graduated from Boston University and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in May of 2017. The rest of the family resides in St. Paul and are members of the </span><b>Church of St. Mark.</b></font></p></div></div><div class="elementor-element elementor-element-08ad483 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor" data-id="08ad483" data-element_type="widget" data-widget_type="text-editor.default" style="box-sizing: border-box; --flex-direction: initial; --flex-wrap: initial; --justify-content: initial; --align-items: initial; --align-content: initial; --gap: initial; --flex-basis: initial; --flex-grow: initial; --flex-shrink: initial; --order: initial; --align-self: initial; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; -webkit-box-direction: normal; flex-direction: var(--flex-direction); flex-wrap: var(--flex-wrap); -webkit-box-pack: var(--justify-content); justify-content: var(--justify-content); -webkit-box-align: var(--align-items); align-items: var(--align-items); align-content: var(--align-content); gap: var(--gap); flex-basis: var(--flex-basis); -webkit-box-flex: var(--flex-grow); flex-grow: var(--flex-grow); flex-shrink: var(--flex-shrink); -webkit-box-ordinal-group: var(--order); order: var(--order); align-self: var(--align-self); position: relative; font-weight: var(--e-global-typography-text-font-weight); width: 763.125px; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="elementor-widget-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: background 0.3s ease 0s, border 0.3s ease 0s, border-radius 0.3s ease 0s, box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s, -webkit-box-shadow 0.3s ease 0s;"><div class="elementor-text-editor elementor-clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">“Personal prejudice and financial greed are the two great evils that threaten courts of law, and once they get the upper hand they immediately hamstring society, by destroying all justice.”</font></p><p style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">― Thomas More, Utopia</font></p></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="">Erick G. Kaardalhttps://www.mklaw.com › attorney › kaardal-erick-g</div><div style="">EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS FIGHTING FOR YOUR SUCCESS Erick G. Kaardal Contact Me: (612) 465-0937 Email me Practice Areas: Governmental Relations – Litigation ...</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Erick Kaardal - Thomas More Societyhttps://thomasmoresociety.org › Attorneys</div><div style="">Erick G. Kaardal is an attorney in private practice specializing in governmental relations as well as a special counsel for the Thomas More Society ...</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Erick Kaardal (@ErickKaardal) / Twitterhttps://twitter.com › erickkaardal</div><div style="">Attorney Erick Kaardal was interviewed in Green Bay, Wisconsin, by "Regular Joe" -- radio talk show icon Joe Gigante. The link can be found here: https://omny.</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Lawyer loses challenge to judge's ethics referral after failed ...https://www.reuters.com › legal › government › lawyer-lo...</div><div style="">Mar 22, 2022 — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said attorney Erick Kaardal, a litigator at Minneapolis-based law firm Mohrman, Kaardal ...</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Erick Kaardal Family Preservation Foundation Chief Counselhttps://familypreservationfoundation.org › about › chie...</div><div style="">Erick G. Kaardal was born in Redwood Falls, Minnesota and attended K-12 there. Mr. Kaardal attended Harvard College on an U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training ...</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Erick Kaardal - Partner - Mohrman Kaardal & Erickson PAhttps://www.linkedin.com › erick-kaardal-6ba54518</div><div style="">Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area · Partner · Mohrman Kaardal & Erickson PA</div><div style="">My legal practice is strategic litigation against the government (SLAG). Because I have obtained a high volume of cases representing citizens, ...</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Erick Kaardal | Wisconsin Public Radiohttps://www.wpr.org › tags › erick-kaardal</div><div style="">Erick Kaardal News. Another judge rejects case challenging 2020 election grants. June 1, 2022 - 12:00pm. Read full article: Another judge rejects case ...</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">'Blurring of lines': Private lawyer plays starring role in taxpayer ...https://pbswisconsin.org › news-item › blurring-of-lines...</div><div style="">Apr 27, 2022 — With no contract and no official role, the work of attorney Erick Kaardal of the Thomas More Society dominates the 2020 investigation headed ...</div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Erick Kaardal - Urban Milwaukeehttps://urbanmilwaukee.com › people › erick-kaardal</div><div style="">The Gableman Conspiracy 'Circus'. Offers hours of conspiracy-laden testimony and new report pushing to decertify 2020 election which Republican calls ...</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></div></div>