Speaker Robin Vos announced today he has fired Michael Gableman as special counsel to the Assembly.
The move comes three days after the Rochester Republican beat back a primary challenge by Adam Steen, who Gableman had endorsed.
The move brings to a close an investigation that lasted more than a year and has cost taxpayers more than $1 million. Taxpayers also could be on the hook for $260,000 in legal fees for the group that sued to obtain records from the former Supreme Court justice’s probe.
Vos told WisPolitics.com after his Tuesday victory that he planned to meet with Assembly GOP leadership and the caucus next week before deciding the next steps for Gableman’s probe.
But he said in a statement today that it was “beyond clear to me that we only have one choice in this matter” after many members of the caucus had reached out to him.
“For those like me who remain concerned about ensuring we have election integrity, we have a simple solution; to focus on our efforts to elect a Republican governor in November so we can pass the bills that were vetoed by Governor Evers,” Vos said.
State Sen. Melissa Agard, D-Madison, joined Dem colleagues this week in calling for an audit of the Office of Special Counsel. She said the end of the investigation was long overdue. Agard also called it a waste of taxpayer dollars.
“Gableman has been grifting on the taxpayers’ dime for over a year now,” Agard said. “We’re going to continue to be paying for these lies both financially and morally. It is far past time that his lies and misinformation have been put to an end.”
