GOP prepared to spend $680,000, issue subpoenas in hunt for election fraud, Reince Preibus says

Also on Wednesday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said he believes a “cyber-forensic audit” is necessary as part of the Legislature’s review of the 2020 election and that discussions have focused on additional hiring to aid in the probe.

“Assembly Republicans have been working with (former Wisconsin Supreme Court) Justice (Michael) Gableman to conduct a swift, complete and thorough investigation,” Vos said in a statement. “Part of our discussion has been focused on hiring independent contractors to enhance our efforts. We believe a cyber-forensic audit is necessary to ensure issues did not happen in 2020. We have allocated additional resources to Justice Gableman to ensure this investigation gets to the truth.”

Vos didn’t provide any clarity on what he meant by a “cyber-forensic audit,” nor did he confirm the cost of the audit.

Such an election review could take a similar tone to the widely criticized Arizona election review, launched by Arizona Senate Republicans in April to review Maricopa County ballots in an effort to find irregularities that could support former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. The ballots there had already been counted and audited twice.

Wisconsin Republicans have been pressured by Trump and conservative activists to order a “full forensic audit” of the 2020 election.

The Arizona review was conducted by a small Florida-based cybersecurity firm, Cyber Ninjas, which had no prior history in elections and whose owner tweeted support for conspiracy theories claiming President Joe Biden’s victory was illegitimate. 

Bannon’s podcast

Priebus, who formerly served as former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, made the comments about Wisconsin’s partisan election review on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s podcast. Priebus provided Bannon an update on the ongoing election review led by the Wisconsin Legislature, which has hired Gableman, a former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, to lead the review.

Gableman told a group of Trump supporters last year that the election was stolen. He also traveled to Arizona this month to observe the recount there, and attended a symposium on alleged election fraud in South Dakota headed by MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell.

The Lindell event was billed as presenting “irrefutable” proof that Chinese-backed hackers helped steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden, according to The Washington Post. But the “proof,” which Lindell claimed was intercepted network data, could not be recovered and could not prove any incursion by China, according to one of the cyber experts hired by Lindell, the conservative Washington Times reported.

Gableman is receiving $44,000 to oversee the election investigation.

Off to Alabama

Preibus’ comments, which were first reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, come just days after Vos visited with Trump during a campaign event in Alabama. After the meeting, Vos said he would keep Trump updated on the Legislature’s election investigation and will do “whatever it takes” to help Gableman uncover reports of systemic voter fraud.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud following recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties initiated by the Trump campaign, as well as the review of multiple courts.

Trump knocked Wisconsin Republicans earlier this summer for, in his view, not doing enough to investigate the 2020 election outcome in the state. State Rep. Janel Brandtjen, R-Menomonee Falls, the Assembly’s election committee chair, attempted to issue subpoenas for election materials to Milwaukee and Brown counties; however, neither Vos nor Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, R-Oostburg, signed them and so they weren’t valid.

‘Dangerous game’

Democrats have blasted GOP calls for more investigations as feeding into the lie that Trump actually won the state. 

“Let’s be clear,” said Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh. “This dangerous game being played by Robin Vos and other Wisconsin Republicans is part of a coordinated and well-funded national effort, with the ultimate goal being to undermine and overturn future elections.”

Two people have been charged with election fraud, out of more than 3 million votes cast in the state, and prosecutors are still reviewing a handful of other cases that were among 27 forwarded to them by election officials.

There are a number of investigations into the 2020 election despite there being no evidence of widespread fraud. The investigations include the Legislature’s, authorized by Vos; an election audit being performed by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Audit Bureau; the review overseen by Brandtjen; and an independent investigation being led by Peter Bernegger, who was convicted of mail fraud and bank fraud in federal court in Mississippi in 2009.

Outside money?

Priebus said the Legislature’s election investigation will cost at least $680,000 and that the Legislature will fully fund it, although he wasn’t clear about whether the money would come from taxpayers or elsewhere. He said he expects outside money to be a factor in the investigation. 

Priebus said he wants Gableman to conduct a wide-ranging review of the 2020 election, including whether “ballot harvesting” occurred, which is the collection and submitting of completed absentee ballots by third parties. 

He also called for a comparison of the voter rolls with driving records and other documents to determine if there are more people who should be removed from the voter rolls due to having moved or not voting. And he wants officials to “forensically observe” ballots to make sure they weren’t filled out by machines.

Priebus said he wants reviewers to also target ballots submitted by voters who identified as “indefinitely confined,” a subset of voters who claimed to be confined due to illness, disability or infirmity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of voters who identified as indefinitely confined increased significantly. Such voters don’t need to include a photocopy of their ID when they mail their ballot in.

In the April 2020 election, Dane and Milwaukee county clerks had erroneously instructed voters that anyone could identify as indefinitely confined because of the pandemic, advice that the Wisconsin Supreme Court stopped the clerks from continuing to give out.