More than two years after a complaint was brought against the 10 Republicans who attempted to hand Wisconsin’s Electoral College votes to President Donald Trump, a Dane County judge said Monday he plans to send the case back to the state elections commission for a second consideration.
Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington, who plans to issue a written ruling in the next week or so, said when he sends the matter back to the Wisconsin Elections Commission he’ll stipulate that GOP commissioner Robert Spindell Jr. — who was also one of the 10 fake electors to sign the documents — must recuse himself this time around.
In March 2022, Spindell and the rest of the bipartisan commission unanimously dismissed the complaint after determining the 10 Republicans had not violated state elections laws.
Attorneys for Spindell, the elections commission and liberal group Law Forward, which filed the initial complaint in February 2021, all largely agreed with Remington’s impending decision. Spindell’s attorney Mark Maciolek said his client has agreed to not participate in the complaint’s second consideration before the commission.
“I’ll tip my hand,” Remington said in oral arguments Monday. “I’m going to issue a written decision. But — surprise, surprise — I’m going to come to the conclusion, as all parties have, that the appropriate remedy is to vacate the decision of the (elections commission) and remand it back for further proceedings, which don’t include commissioner Spindell.”
The case stems from a Dec. 14, 2020, meeting at the Capitol where, following pressure from people in Trump’s inner circle, the 10 Republicans signed official-looking documents purporting that Trump had won Wisconsin, despite recounts and court decisions affirming that President Joe Biden won the battleground state by almost 21,000 votes.
Wisconsin Law Forward filed a complaint in early 2021 with the elections commission on behalf of the Service Employees International Union alleging the Republican slate of electors violated Wisconsin law when they convened and then sent documents to federal and state officials falsely claiming to be the state’s rightful electors.
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After the elections commission dismissed the complaint, Law Forward since filed a separate lawsuit on behalf of a handful of Democrats, including two official presidential electors, against the 10 Republicans, as well as Boston-area lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis, a former Republican-appointed Dane County judge who has represented Trump in Wisconsin.
That lawsuit, which is also before Remington, alleges the Republicans and their attorneys broke multiple laws, including counterfeiting public records, illegally interfering with official procedures, defrauding the public and engaging in conspiracy. Plaintiffs seek more than $2.4 million in damages, including $2,000 fines for the Republicans and their attorneys, and up to $200,000 in punitive damages for each plaintiff.
Nine of the 10 Republicans have sought to have the lawsuit broken up and brought before individual courts in their counties of residence.