New documents posted online by Michael Gableman underscore efforts by the former state Supreme Court justice to gather information on the partisan leanings of public election employees as part of his GOP-ordered review of the 2020 election, including details on a Milwaukee staffer he determined to be “probably a Democrat” because she has a nose piercing and sometimes colors her hair.

The memo, titled “cross pollinators” and posted on the Office of Special Counsel website Thursday, lists details about a Milwaukee geographic information system analyst, including that she “has a weird nose ring,” has colored hair in some of her photos, “loves nature and snakes,” plays video games and lives with a boyfriend but is not married to him. The unsigned memo also notes that the employee has “no overt signs of rampant partisanship.”

The documents were posted on the same day that a Dane County judge ordered Gableman to stop deleting public records related to the GOP-ordered review into the 2020 election — after court filings revealed that Gableman’s office regularly destroys records deemed “irrelevant or useless.”

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Among the documents recently posted on Gableman’s website, the “cross pollinators” memo underscores the former justice’s fixation on the partisan leanings of elections officials in the state. Gableman was hired last year by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, to review the election at a cost of $676,000 to taxpayers.

Others listed in the memo include Milwaukee Election Commission director Claire Woodall-Vogg, who is referred to as “Voggy” in another memo; Madison and Green Bay city clerks Maribeth Witzel-Behl and Celestine Jeffreys; and Racine clerk and treasurer Tara Coolidge, among others. Witzel-Behl’s name is misspelled “Maribeth Wetzel” in the report, and Jeffreys’ is misspelled “Jefferies.”

In a recent discussion with WTAQ-AM, Gableman criticized the clothing choice of the Wisconsin Elections Commission’s nonpartisan administrator, Meagan Wolfe, remarking, “black dress, white pearls, I’ve seen the act, I’ve seen the show.”

“Gableman has a bizarre fixation with the jewelry and appearance of the women he is supposedly investigating,” Wisconsin Elections Commission Democratic chair Ann Jacobs tweeted Thursday. “It’s sleazy and gross and has no place in any investigations by the government.”

Gableman’s office had not responded to a request for comment Thursday.

Download PDF Michael Gableman's "Cross Pollinators" memo

Deleted records

Indiana lawyer James Bopp, who is representing Gableman in an ongoing lawsuit filed by liberal watchdog group American Oversight seeking records related to the election review, wrote in an April 8 letter to the organization that the Office of Special Counsel routinely evaluates documents, including text messages and emails, to determine whether the record is of use to the ongoing probe. Documents deemed relevant to the investigation are downloaded and kept.

“If the document is irrelevant or useless to the investigation, the (office) deletes that document,” Bopp wrote in the letter, which was filed in court Wednesday. “In light of this standard procedure, the (office) routinely deletes documents and text messages that are not of use to the investigation. An irrelevant or useless document includes documents that the (office) is not intending to further investigate, and is not intending to rely upon for its recommendations or reports.”

Bopp wrote that the deletion of records ensures that the office is not overrun by irrelevant and useless documents, but an analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Council back in October found that deleting such records, even by a state contractor like Gableman, violates state law.

American Oversight this week filed a request for a temporary injunction to prevent Gableman’s team from deleting records as part of an ongoing lawsuit seeking access to the documents.

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Judge’s order

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Frank Remington ordered Gableman on Thursday to not delete or destroy any records that may be responsive to American Oversight’s original request pending further action from the court on the matter. A scheduling conference has been set in the case for Tuesday.

“If this investigation was above board, the Office of Special Counsel would have maintained and released records of its work required by law,” American Oversight senior adviser Melanie Sloan said in a statement. “Instead, it is fighting tooth and nail to hide its work from the public. This inquiry is nothing more than an attempt to prop up conspiracy theories and undermine free and fair elections.”

In the October memo, which was prepared for then-Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh, Legislative Council deputy director Dan Schmidt wrote that the state’s public records law “generally applies to records created or maintained” by Gableman’s office.

In court filings, Bopp contended that the state’s public records retention law only applies to state agencies and not Gableman’s office — citing an exemption to the law provided to the state lawmakers who hired him.

“The (office) is not a state agency subject to the retention law, as it is clear that the (office) is not a ‘commission, board, department or bureau of state government,’” Bopp wrote. “Rather, it is an independent contractor contracted by the Assembly to assist in the investigation of the 2020 Election. As such, it is also not an officer for purposes of the public records retention law.”

Download PDF Legislative Council Memo

State lawmakers are exempt from Wisconsin’s record retention law, allowing them to regularly delete records, though requested documents must be retained if they exist at the time of a formal request. Schmidt wrote in the memo that such an exemption does not apply to Gableman.

Court battles

The case is one of three records-related lawsuits filed by American Oversight against Vos, the Assembly and Gableman.

Vos and Gableman have fought back against multiple records requests from both American Oversight and news organizations, arguing that releasing such documents could undermine the ongoing review. Despite a wide array of claims made by Gableman, the former justice has so far failed to produce evidence to support claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, which saw President Joe Biden defeat former President Donald Trump in the state by about 21,000 votes.

Several judges have been unsympathetic to Republican efforts to withhold those records, with Remington last month ordering the release of hundreds of pages of documents related to Gableman’s review. Remington described the records as “much to-do about nothing.”

In a separate case, Dane County Circuit Court Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn in March held Vos in contempt of court for failing to provide requested public documents related to the probe.

Vos has extended Gableman’s contract through the end of April, but later said he is considering rescinding subpoenas issued by the former justice so that a Republican attorney general if elected in November could file criminal charges against the subpoenaed individuals, though he did not provide specifics on what charges could be pursued.

Gableman said he had recently been contacted by officials in Vos’ office notifying him of plans to dismantle his office by the end of the month. Vos said his goal is to now focus on resolving the several pending lawsuits surrounding the former justice’s review.

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