Assembly Speaker Robin Vos questions GOP contract for legal representation, exposing internal dispute

MADISON - Assembly Speaker Robin Vos questioned Tuesday whether one of his fellow Republicans had the authority to sign a contract with a lawyer who is helping her fight a lawsuit over a partisan review of the 2020 election.

His comments offered a rare glimpse into the internal GOP dispute over how to conduct the election review and defend it in court.

Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls, the chairwoman of the Assembly Elections Committee, signed a contract in November with attorney Joseph Voiland to defend the committee in a lawsuit over the election review.

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Vos, of Rochester, suggested to reporters the contract isn't valid.

“He has no contract with the Legislature,” Vos said of Voiland. “The committee can't sign one. … There's no contract.”

Voiland is to be paid $350 an hour, according to his contract with Brandtjen. But Vos said he didn’t know if Voiland could ever get paid.

“I have no contract,” he said. “I didn't authorize him. I have no idea.”

Brandtjen and Voiland, a former Ozaukee County judge, did not immediately respond to questions Tuesday about Vos’s comments.

Vos last summer hired former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to review the presidential election at a cost of $676,000 to taxpayers on behalf of Assembly Republicans.

Recounts and court rulings found Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by nearly 21,000 votes in Wisconsin. Independent reviews have found no signs of widespread voter fraud.

Gableman has been performing work in the name of Brandtjen’s committee even though she has said she has not been kept up to speed on all of Gableman’s work.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul in October sued to block Gableman’s subpoenas to state election officials, arguing he couldn’t conduct interviews behind closed doors. Brandtjen then hired Voiland to represent her committee in that lawsuit.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford this month declined to immediately halt the subpoenas but raised questions about their validity. She is to issue a final decision in the case in the coming weeks or months.

Brandtjen's committee plans to vote Wednesday to authorize Gableman to review the election — seven months after he began performing that work.

Brandtjen didn't say Tuesday why she was taking that step, but she and her allies may view it as a way to improve their chances of winning the lawsuit.

Vos: 'I have no idea what they're doing'

For his part, Vos said he was unaware of his colleagues' strategy.

"I have no idea what they're doing," he said.

Asked if he thought the committee's vote would help Republicans in the litigation, Vos said, "They didn't ask if it would. So it doesn't seem like that's their concern about winning or losing the lawsuit."

The motion the committee plans to take up Wednesday would give a stamp of approval to Gableman’s hiring and allow him to question election officials in public or privately. He would be able to conduct his interviews in front of the committee or on his own in his office in Brookfield.

Gableman would have to produce a transcript of his interviews, according to the motion.

Kaul's lawsuit over the subpoenas is not the only litigation about the review.

Gableman has asked a Waukesha County judge to jail the mayors of Green Bay and Madison if they won’t sit for interviews with him. The mayors have said they have cooperated with his election review and sought to throw out the case.

Green Bay’s mayor, Eric Genrich, has asked the judge to sanction Gableman and require him to take out newspaper ads to correct public statements he has made about the mayor.

The committee’s vote could play a role in both cases.

Jeffrey Mandell, an attorney for Genrich, said he believes the committee is trying to shore up its chances in the litigation but said the measure may not offer Republicans as much protection as they believe it will.

Mandell and others have questioned whether Gableman can perform his work because his contract with Vos expired in December.

Vos and Gableman have been negotiating over an extension of Gableman's contract. Vos said Tuesday he expected information about the contract to emerge "in the near future."

Vos wants Gableman to complete his work by the end of February but acknowledged Tuesday it could take longer.

"We're certainly not going to let them run out the clock," Vos said. "So if that means we have to have people on retainer to argue the special counsel is legal (and) the subpoenas are legal, we'll probably have to do that. But that wouldn't be my first choice."

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Vos questions GOP contract with lawyer, exposing internal dispute