Judge says Vos must produce requested election probe records

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Dane County judge on Friday gave Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos a second chance to produce requested records involving the investigation of the 2020 election result in Wisconsin.

The order was in response to a lawsuit by the liberal watchdog group American Oversight seeking documents related to the partisan investigation by former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. At one point Vos produced 1,400 pages from a time period outside the request, which led Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn to conclude he didn’t search for them in the first place.

Bailey-Rihn ordered Vos to come up with the documents within 20 days and ordered the Rochester Republican to pay statutory and attorney fees to American Oversight. However, the judge denied the group’s request for punitive damages against

Vos, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

“In sum, ‘that (Vos) was wrong does not justify punitive damages,'” Bailey-Rihn wrote. “Here, the records could still exist and be produced if they were properly searched for by the Respondent.”

American Oversight has filed four lawsuits against Gableman, Vos and the state Assembly related to the GOP-ordered review of the 2020 election.

“It’s ironic that Vos claimed an investigation was necessary to instill confidence in the election outcome, but then has done everything in his power to prevent Wisconsinites from learning the whole truth,” American Oversight senior adviser Melanie Sloan said.