A judge found Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in contempt of court Wednesday for failing to release documents related to a Republican-run review of the 2020 election.
Dane County Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn determined the Rochester Republican and the Assembly as a whole adopted “a collective and abject disregard for the court’s order” from four months ago to turn over documents sought by the liberal group American Oversight under the state’s open records law.
She ordered Vos and the Assembly to turn over records within 14 days and to each pay $1,000 per day if they fail to do that. They will also have to pay some of American Oversight’s legal bills.
Taxpayers will likely be the ones to pay those costs. Vos has approved spending up to $676,000 in taxpayer funds on the election review, but the review and its related legal expenses could exceed that amount.