Given that all other attempts returned similar results, Michael Gableman could hardly be blamed when his investigation of the 2020 presidential election turned up no evidence of voting fraud. It was his behavior during and after his inquiries that led the person who hired him to declare Gableman "an embarrassment" and call for the revocation of his license to practice law.
On April 7, 2025, the former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice agreed to a deal with the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR) to suspend his law license for three years. With a laundry list of misconduct charges against him for a wide array of transgressions that Gableman was unable to defend himself against, it was probably the best deal he was going to get.
Not the Results They Expected
In the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, the tight results in Wisconsin were viewed as a possible scenario for flipping electoral college votes. To do so would require proving the claims of widespread voting fraud being made by defeated President Donald Trump.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was tasked with uncovering this alleged fraud. To do so, he hired Gableman in 2021, who had served on the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 2008 to 2018 and had strong conservative leanings. The former judge's investigation would end up as an expensive and embarrassing debacle that resulted in a 10-count complaint from the OLR.
Gableman failed to uncover any significant issues with regard to voting fraud in Wisconsin, but he proved adept at creating problems of his own. During the seven active months of his investigation, Gableman burned through $2.3 million dollars of taxpayer money. His expense records were described as "scant," he made errors on the simplest of filings, and took meetings with fringe voting conspiracy groups promoting baseless claims.
The former judge was also accused of numerous ethical violations. His repeated refusals to respond to open record requests and subpoenas led to him being sued, and he appeared in court over records he allegedly destroyed rather than give to a liberal group. At the trial, he showed extreme disrespect to the judge, accusing him of bias. Gableman was found guilty of contempt of court.
Despite both Madison and Green Bay giving Gableman the election documents he'd requested, he signed writs to compel them into unnecessary depositions. He accused other election officials of covering up how election grants were used and lied about his continuing to practice law while conducting the investigation.
It takes a lot for both sides to reach across the aisle these days, but the firing of Gableman in 2022 had bipartisan support. It served to enrage the former judge, who set his sights on trying to get Vos removed as Assembly Speaker. He failed at a pair of recall attempts while getting himself in more trouble by publicly discussing private conversations he'd had with Vos, again violating attorney ethics rules.
An Adequate Factual Basis
The OLR's complaint against Gableman accused him of disrupting a court hearing, making derogatory remarks about opposing counsel, making false statements, questioning a judge’s integrity, revealing private information about Vos while trying to get him recalled, and violating open records laws.
Admitting that the charges against him had "an adequate factual basis" that he was unable to refute, Gableman agreed to surrender his law license for three years rather than face the possibility of having it permanently revoked by the court. The deal is pending the approval of the official overseeing the case and, somewhat ironically, the Wisconsin Supreme Court that Gableman was once a member of.
Related Resources
- What Is the Freedom of Information Act and How Does It Work? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)
- What Are Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility? (FindLaw's Lear About the Law)
- Researching Attorney Discipline (FindLaw's Choosing the Right Lawyer)
