The involvement of Andrew Kloster, a Republican attorney and former member of President Donald Trump’s administration, in the GOP’s ongoing investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 election continues to raise questions about the credibility of the inquiry, which some have dismissed as a thinly veiled effort to undermine public confidence in elections leading up to the 2024 presidential vote.
On Friday, American Oversight, an organization investigating partisan election reviews in several states including Wisconsin, filed a lawsuit against the state Assembly and Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, for failing to release records related to the Republican-led investigation, which is which is being led by retired state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman.
In an about-face Thursday, Kloster called Madison city attorney Michael Haas to inform him that the investigation had backed off an initial request for subpoenas and interviews with mayors and city clerks in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Racine and Kenosha. While city officials said the decision to pare down the initial request — which would have included hundreds of thousands of election-related documents — was good news, Richard Hasen, an election law professor at the University of California-Irvine, said Kloster’s involvement in the audit further underscores that the effort is “far from credible.”