American Oversight on Tuesday published a report on our findings from our investigation of the Wisconsin Assembly’s partisan review of the 2020 election led by conservative attorney Michael Gableman.

American Oversight began investigating almost immediately after Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos announced the review in the summer of 2021, ultimately filing four separate lawsuits to ensure that key records were preserved and released.

As a judge in one of American Oversight’s public records lawsuits said, Gableman’s review found  “absolutely no evidence” of voter fraud after being extended multiple times. Over the course of the year, as the review considerably outspent its original $676,000 budget, the Assembly and the newly created Office of Special Counsel (OSC), headed by Gableman, faced several lawsuits for failing to properly comply with the state’s open records law — with the Assembly, Vos, and Gableman’s OSC each at one point being held in contempt of court.

American Oversight’s investigation also revealed the office’s frequent destruction of public documents and its dismal record-keeping practices, as well as the influence and involvement of partisan and anti-democratic individuals and groups, several of which had actively promoted conspiracy theories about election fraud or sought to overturn the state’s 2020 results.

The report includes a breakdown of the records American Oversight obtained showing OSC’s salary payments and the office’s rapid increase in spending and staffing in the final months of 2021. It also highlights the involvement of several election-denying groups and individuals in the review.

You can find American Oversight’s full report here. We will continue to provide any updates to our investigation and related litigation here.