AP:
The former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice hired to investigate President Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state testified Thursday that he routinely deleted records, and deactivated a personal email account, even after receiving open records requests.
Michael Gableman testified in a court hearing about whether the person who hired him, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, should face penalties after earlier being found in contempt for how he handled the records requests from American Oversight….
Gableman testified Thursday that he did early work on the investigation at a Milwaukee-area library and used his personal email account. Gableman said he did not retain the notes he took during meetings he attended, including one in August in South Dakota hosted by MyPillow founder Mike Lindell. He also testified that he deleted records if there was no pending open records request and he determined it was not useful or pertinent to his work.
“Did I delete documents? Yes, I did,” he said.
Gableman testified that someone in his office deleted his personal Yahoo email account for him after he had received an open records request from American Oversight. Gableman had used that account last summer before he had an official state email address.
The judge asked Gableman if he had searched the account for responsive records before deleting it and he said, “I believe so.”
“Do I specifically recall going back, I don’t,” Gableman said. “But I would have looked at every email account available to me.”
Gableman also revealed that he had to go to the emergency room for COVID-19 after attending an election conference hosted by Lindell in South Dakota in August.
“I went out there because I thought there was going to be some solid evidence of Chinese interference of the (voting) machines and I was very disappointed with the lack of substance to back up those claims,” Gableman said. “And I was annoyed that I had gone out and as it turns out I had COVID. Anyway, I didn’t find anything I could use during that seminar.”
Gableman, under questioning for the judge, also said his research included getting up to speed on how elections work because “I did not have a very sophisticated or intricate understanding.”