The office of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos sought to cut in half the salary former Justice Michael Gableman is being paid for his review of the 2020 election, according to new records released by a liberal group.
The proposed salary reduction wasn’t included in the latest amended contract that Vos, R-Rochester, signed with Gableman earlier this year.
Under the terms of a contract Vos signed with Gableman last year, the former justice is receiving $11,000 a month. But Vos attorney Steve Fawcett suggested to Gableman in a January email that an amendment to the contract should include new conditions for his salary.
The email was among the documents that the liberal group American Oversight released late Friday. It received thousands of documents from Vos’ office as part of its open records lawsuits seeking records from the probe.
The changes to the contract that Fawcett proposed suggested that:
*Gableman would be paid $11,000 a month for January, February and March of this year only if he delivered to the Legislature and the Assembly Campaigns and Elections Commission a “final” report on the 2020 election by the end of February. Gableman on March 1 appeared before the Assembly committee to provide an overview of his latest report on the probe. During that appearance, Gableman suggested his investigation would go on indefinitely and Vos had indicated his “full support” of it continuing. The amended contract Gableman ended up signing with Vos called for a “Second Interim Report” to be delivered by March 1.
*Fawcett also proposed the amended contract include a provision that Gableman be paid $5,550 a month after March to lead, direct, or assist “any litigation still ongoing from his investigation.” That salary would continue until “all litigation has reached its conclusion or either party terminates this agreement.” The amended contract Vos and Gableman signed runs through April 30 unless extended by both parties. It also pledged the Assembly would cover attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses from ongoing litigation challenging Gableman’s efforts to compel witnesses to provide depositions at his private office rather than in public before an Assembly committee. The amended contract doesn’t include a cap on those costs.
*Gableman couldn’t exceed his original budget or $676,000 “unless otherwise authorized.” A similar provision was included in the amended contract that Vos and Gabelman signed.
See the amended contract:
https://www.wispolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/220308Amendment.pdf
See the American Oversight records:
https://www.americanoversight.org/document/wisconsin-assembly-previously-deleted-records-related-to-election-investigation
