Trump pressures Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to impeach elections chief Meagan Wolfe

MADISON - Donald Trump is again putting pressure on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to overhaul Wisconsin's system of elections, this time by elevating calls to impeach the nonpartisan leader of the state's elections agency whom Trump continues to cast as a villain in his false narrative about the battleground state's 2020 election.

The former president and frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary race on Monday shared with his 6.5 million social media followers a press release from Republican Rep. Janel Brandtjen criticizing Vos for not moving to impeach Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe.

But Vos on Tuesday suggested the Assembly would not take up the effort.

"I think we need to move forward and talk about the issues that matter to most Wisconsinites and that is not, for most Wisconsinites, obsessing about Meagan Wolfe," Vos told reporters.

Wolfe has served as a target for nearly three years to those in the Republican Party base who believe widespread election misconduct delivered an election loss to Trump in 2020, despite court rulings, nonpartisan audits, and recounts paid for by Trump, showing President Joe Biden was elected fairly.

More: Voter education group works to pierce distrust in elections in Wisconsin, one meeting at a time

Brandtjen and four other Republican members of the Assembly put forward 15 articles of impeachment against Wolfe in September. Many of the articles contain accusations that have been debunked or are based on decisions made by the bipartisan panel of commissioners who oversee Wolfe.

Trump's post on his social media platform Truth Social was made ahead of Tuesday's Assembly floor session and during a six-figure ad campaign in the Milwaukee media market threatening to unseat Vos unless he moves to impeach Wolfe.

Last week, Vos assigned the impeachment resolution to a committee amid the ad campaign that was launched days after former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman suggested to the group behind the ads that Vos should be recalled if he did not advance the articles.

Vos hired Gableman in 2021 to review the 2020 election during a previous pressure campaign by Trump on Republican legislative leaders to do more to probe his election loss.

Gableman's review turned up no evidence of widespread fraud or misconduct, and his relationship with Vos turned sour as Trump and his supporters blamed Vos for not overturning Biden's legitimate election victory. Just before Vos fired Gableman the former Supreme Court justice helped Vos' unsuccessful primary opponent Adam Steen.

Steen and members of a Racine County-based group focused on false 2020 election claims are listed as registered officers of the group behind the recent ads.

The impeachment articles against Wolfe were first circulated by a group of Republican members of the Assembly on Sept. 21. Vos said at the time he instead preferred using a legislative process that allows a committee to hire a new administrator.

In an interview Monday with conservative radio show host Joe Giganti on Green Bay's WTAQ, Gableman suggested to listeners that the floor session would be the "last chance" to impeach Wolfe. There are no time limits on such resolutions, however.

"If Speaker Vos or anyone else voluntarily or unnecessarily gives up that power (of impeachment), they are shutting the people out of their ability to get rid of people like Meagan Wolfe," Gableman said.

"If they don't impeach her tomorrow — that is if 50 members of the Assembly don't vote on it and send it over to the Senate so the Senate can consider it — we are going to have Meagan Wolfe for the foreseeable future."

The lawmakers — Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls, Rep. Scott Allen of Waukesha, Rep. Elijah Behnke of Oconto, Rep. Ty Bodden of Hilbert and Rep. Chuck Wichgers of Muskego — argued impeachment is warranted because Wolfe challenged a Senate vote to fire her.

Vos has said he supports removing Wolfe but wants to wait until a lawsuit filed on behalf of Wolfe to keep her in her job plays out. The authors of the impeachment resolution could attempt to call for a vote during Tuesday's floor session.

But the resolution did not come up during Tuesday's floor session and Vos said the GOP caucus was not unified on the move to impeach.

"We just had a brief discussion about it today and I think that we are nowhere near a consensus. But I can't predict what's going to happen in the future," Vos said. "I think it is unlikely that it's going to come up anytime soon."

More: Despite public comments, Republicans concede in legal filing they lack grounds to oust Meagan Wolfe

Molly Beck can be reached at molly.beck@jrn.com.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Trump pressures Vos to impeach Wisconsin elections chief Meagan Wolfe