Inquiry Into The 2020 Election In Wisconsin’s Assembly Has Been Expanded By Republican

MADISON, Wis. — The top Republican in Wisconsin’s Assembly said on Friday that he is broadening an investigation into the 2020 presidential election, claiming that it would require more investigators and time than anticipated.

To conduct the inquiry, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos secured contracts with two retired police investigators and a former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice in June. But, as Vos revealed for the first time on Friday, those two investigators left early this month, prompting him to “take a new tack.”

Vos has named former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman as a “special counsel” and given him broad authority to employ as many investigators as he sees fit, with the objective of wrapping up the investigation this autumn.

“If he feels he just needs one person, that’s fantastic “The Associated Press quoted Vos as saying. “If he thinks he’ll need a half-dozen, that’s fantastic.”

Gableman did not respond to a message seeking comment right away.

Former President Donald Trump and other Wisconsin Republicans have been calling for a larger investigation. Vos made the announcement just three days after claiming that a fellow Republican member who was asking for a “forensic audit” was confused about the work that had already begun.

After Gableman approached him and indicated a more strong effort was required with investigators who could focus on it full-time, Vos said preparations to modify the inquiry he authorized had been in the works for a long. Vos stated it would be appropriate to spend several hundred thousand dollars on it, despite the fact that he had not established a budget.

The inquiry was supposed to cost around $72,000 each month until September, according to the initial agreement. Vos intended to employ three veteran police detectives, but only two were hired. Both of them resigned because they were recruited to work part-time, but it needed a full-time commitment, according to Vos.

Nellie Sires, executive director of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, termed it a “fake inquiry.”

In a statement, she stated, “The truth will remain that the 2020 election was free, fair, and definitive.” “It’s past time for Speaker Boehner to stop playing games and start speaking the truth.”

Vos said he planned to finish the job in the fall, about the same time the neutral Legislative Audit Bureau finishes its study, which the Republican Legislature requested. Even as he faces pressure from Trump and the Republican chair of the Assembly elections committee to conduct a study more comparable to the highly criticized one conducted in Arizona, Vos has referred to their investigation as a “multi-faceted forensic audit.”

There is no one definition of a “forensic audit,” according to Vos, but he believes the results of the investigation he requested, as well as the one conducted by the neutral Audit Bureau, would suffice.

“If you have two separate investigations that are going to follow the evidence, it should be something we should all be aware of,” says the author “According to Vos.

Wisconsin was won by President Joe Biden by slightly over 20,000 votes. There is no proof of widespread fraud, and many challenges filed by Trump and his backers to reverse the result were dismissed by the courts. Democrats have slammed requests for further probes, claiming that they are fueling conspiracy theories and false claims that Trump won the state.

Last month, Trump chastised Vos and two other Republican lawmakers, accusing them of “trying hard to cover up election malfeasance.” Trump was misled, according to Vos and the other Wisconsin Republicans.

In Wisconsin, there have been practically no reported incidents of electoral fraud.

Out of more than 3 million votes cast in the state, two persons have been charged with election fraud, and prosecutors are currently investigating a handful of additional cases among the 27 presented to them by election authorities. Similarly, in Arizona, just a few possible voting fraud incidents have been uncovered.