by Melanie Conklin, Wisconsin Examiner
January 27, 2022
When Sen. Chris Larson and Rep. Jonathan Brostoff asked the Milwaukee County district attorney to investigate the 10 fake electors who sent documents to Congress falsely certifying the votes of Wisconsinites went to Donald Trump, the pair of Milwaukee legislators also began looking into who reserved the room in the Capitol where the fake electors met to put their signatures on those documents.
Potential charges against the group of “imposter” electors include forgery, falsely acting as public officers, misconduct in public office and conspiracy to commit criminal acts — as well as potential violations of federal law, according to attorney Jeff Mandell of Law Forward, the nonprofit firm that first called for an investigation into the fake electors last February.
Larson and Brostoff assert that whoever reserved the room for the Republicans may be complicit in what they deem a likely crime. Through an open records request Larson received evidence that it was then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald who reserved the room. Fitzgerald was elected to Congress in the same election whose results he helped challenge.
“The Congressman owes it to his constituents and the American people at large to condemn the actions of the fraudulent GOP electors. Failing to do so is an admission that he supports their attempt to overthrow the legitimate election of President Biden, including Wisconsin, which Biden won by nearly 21,000 votes,” wrote Larson in a statement. “As lawmakers, we have a special responsibility to respect the outcome of our elections, and by seemingly assisting those who would undermine that process, Congressman Fitzgerald will have committed acts that betray the oath he swore when he took office.”
Fitzgerald was sworn in on Jan. 3 and among his first acts as a newly minted congressman was to vote against certifying the election for Biden on Jan. 6. That came after the deadly attack by insurgents who invaded and trashed the U.S. Capitol in an effort to subvert democracy and the peaceful transition of power. Fitzgerald could not be reached for comment — nor has he made a public statement on the matter.
Brostoff believes Fitzgerald knowingly aided Wisconsin’s fake electors in an effort to subvert the results of the presidential contest. “It seems extremely unlikely that any of this is a coincidence,” he says, and adds that given his oaths of office on both the state and federal level to protect the Constitution, “Fitzgerald needs to be held accountable and should immediately resign. I’m hopeful that justice will be done and I’ll keep pushing for it.”
According to Larson’s statement, “The records received from the office of the State Senate Sergeant at Arms indicate that staff from then-Senator Fitzgerald’s office reserved meeting space from 10:00am to 2:00pm in the Senate Parlor and Room 201SE on behalf of the Republican Party of Wisconsin (RPW).” The Capitol was closed to the public due to COVID-19, “but legislators were able to reserve meeting space for constituents and other interested groups as they saw fit,” he wrote.
“All indications are that Congressman Fitzgerald saw fit to provide space in the Capitol for a slate of 10 Republicans purporting to be the authorized presidential electors from Wisconsin to meet and produce fraudulent documents claiming (falsely) that the 2020 Election in Wisconsin was won by Donald Trump,” his statement said.
Larson discussed the open record documents he secured with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and told her, “It is something that did not just get plotted that very day. It is something that spanned across seven states … and in the case of Sen. Fitzgerald it was something he had a role in the very beginning of it by opening up a room.” Larson is referencing documents secured by American Oversight that revealed that seven states submitted false documents, although two states — not Wisconsin — added language saying the documents were to be used in case something further was discovered about the results.
Maddow, interviewing Larson on his revelation, parodied comments from staff in the Sargent’s Office who stated, in reviewing the request, that there was a lot going on in the Capitol on Dec. 14. “Yeah there was real work happening in the Capitol that day,” said Maddow, showing a picture of the Democratic electors in Gov. Tony Evers’ office. “Are we too busy to squeeze in a crime here? Do we have the nice room we could give them for that?”
The 10 who falsely claimed Trump had won Wisconsin’s votes were Carol Brunner, Edward Scott Grabins, Bill Feehan, Robert F. Spindell, Jr., Kathy Kiernan, Darryl Carlson, Pam Travis, Kelly Ruh, Andrew Hitt and Mary Buestrin.
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Most of the 10 hold positions within the Republican Party, including Andrew Hitt who is the former party chair. Bob Spindell sits on the Wisconsin Elections Commission. Most of the rest serve as Republican Party leaders of county or congressional-district parties. And a number of them are involved in the campaigns of Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and attorney general candidate Adam Jarchow.
Jarchow told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he would not investigate the matter if elected.
According to the progressive policy and advocacy group A Better Wisconsin Together, of the 10 imposter electors, four have ties to Kleefisch, as donors or advisors. The group lists:
- Bill Feehan, named to the Kleefisch gubernatorial campaign grassroots leadership board;
- Mary Buestrin, a member of the advisory board of the 1848 Project political organization established by Kleefisch and overseen by her before announcing her run for governor;
- Kelly Ruh, an original member of the advisory board of Kleefisch’s 1848 Project; and
- Andrew Hitt, former head of the Republican Party of Wisconsin and a Kleefisch donor, including $2,000 to her gubernatorial campaign in December 2021.
“As far as Kleefisch and Jarchow are concerned, it should be an obvious disqualifier from office, point blank, period,” responds Brostoff. “Not only does it bring into question her judgment as to who she is surrounding herself with, if you are going to have someone who has made democracy their enemy a heartbeat away … someone who’s got the ear of the governor. Having multiple people like that close to the governor is dangerous, scary and wholly inappropriate for her.”
He adds that Jarchow announcing he would not prosecute sent the message he’d protect his friends, “Given who’s working on his campaign I found that to be grossly inappropriate.”
Wisconsin Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.
