By Matt Mencarini, Wisconsin Watch

A two-story workplace constructing in a Milwaukee suburb homes three entities which have led a months-long marketing campaign sowing doubt about Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election.

The grey, vague constructing in Brookfield lists a couple of dozen occupants, together with a advertising and marketing firm on the primary flooring, and monetary providers companies on the second.

However there are three occupants whose names are nowhere to be discovered: Particular Counsel Michael Gableman, lawyer Erick Kaardal and the Thomas Extra Society.

The three, led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court docket Justice Gableman, are collaborating on the $676,000 investigation into alleged election fraud launched by Meeting Speaker Robin Vos.

Though he lacks a contract or official function in Gableman’s taxpayer-funded investigation, Kaardal has turn out to be a de facto lead investigator. A Wisconsin Watch evaluation reveals roughly half of the chapters in Gableman’s 136-page interim report are based mostly on Kaardal’s work.

Since September, the Minnesota lawyer and the conservative Chicago regulation agency for which he works have subleased workplace house for about $3,000 a month instantly from an organization owned by Gableman.

Kaardal’s and Thomas Extra Society’s connections to — and potential affect on — Gableman’s investigation stretch past 2,100 sq. ft of workplace house. As a non-public lawyer, Kaardal additionally represents folks underneath guardianship orders featured in Gableman’s investigation — shoppers he prices are victims of “voter abuse.”

Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, a member of the Meeting Committee on Campaigns and Elections, mentioned he “completely” has issues in regards to the relationship between Kaardal, the Thomas Extra Society and Gableman.

Spreitzer additionally criticized the standard of the data Gableman has launched to date, such because the suspiciously excessive voter turnout charges for nursing houses — claims that media organizations have debunked.

“It is cherry-picked (information) at finest, and easily unsuitable at worst,” Spreitzer mentioned.

Meeting elections committee member Rep. Mark Spreitzer, D-Beloit, says he’s involved in regards to the function of Erick Kaardal and the Thomas Extra Society within the taxpayer-funded probe into Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election. He’s seen at Gov. Tony Evers’ second State of the State tackle on the State Capitol on Jan. 22, 2020 in Madison. (Credit score: Coburn Dukehart / Wisconsin Watch)

Gableman’s workplace didn’t return a message looking for remark, and neither did representatives for Vos, R-Rochester, or Democratic Legal professional Normal Josh Kaul, who’s suing Gableman and Vos, arguing they lack authority to pressure officers to take part within the investigation.

Gableman’s unique contract expired on the finish of 2021, however was prolonged by way of the tip of April 2022. It now seems to be nearing an in depth. Gableman has mentioned Vos intends to halt his investigation earlier than the tip of the month.

‘Professional-family’ group shifts to elections

For almost 25 years, the Thomas Extra Society was finest recognized for submitting pro-life and “pro-family” litigation, together with representing a California baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding ceremony.

However lately, Kaardal and the Thomas Extra Society have turn out to be central figures in questioning the validity of the 2020 election — pushing theories that judges, audits and different evaluations have rejected.

The society’s funding has ballooned because it added election-related litigation to its focus areas. Its monetary assertion for the 2020 fiscal yr, the newest out there, confirmed $17.4 million in income, up from $9.6 million the earlier yr.

That cash has helped Thomas Extra file lawsuits in a number of states difficult how the 2020 election was administered, with a specific curiosity within the grant cash to native municipalities from the Middle for Tech and Civic Life, a Mark Zuckerberg-funded charity.

Erick Kaardal delivers remarks to members of the Wisconsin Meeting elections committee on the State Capitol in Madison on March 1, 2022. Kaardal and the nonprofit regulation agency, Thomas Extra Society, are enjoying unofficial however central roles within the ongoing investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election. (Credit score: Courtesy of WisEye)

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Amongst Kaardal’s different election-related lawsuits is a 2020 case towards then-Vice President Mike Pence, Congress and others looking for to cease the Electoral Faculty rely that was so stuffed with “baseless fraud allegations and tenuous authorized claims” that the decide filed an ethics referral towards him. That matter continues to be pending.

In March 2022, as Gableman introduced the findings in his interim report back to the Meeting Committee on Campaigns and Elections, he complimented Kaardal and the Thomas Extra Society, saying they’d finished “very substantial and really great work on behalf of the folks of this state.”

However the tangled relationships elevate questions on who Kaardal is de facto working for: himself and his shoppers, the Thomas Extra Society or the state of Wisconsin.

‘Unseemly’ relationship?

A lot of what Gableman launched in March repackaged earlier work from Kaardal and the Thomas Extra Society, together with video interviews with seven of Kaardal’s personal shoppers.

Kaardal advised Wisconsin Watch he offered the previous justice with data that he gathered whereas making ready for lawsuits and complaints, however that Gableman did not move alongside something his crew had realized.

Tom Brejcha, Thomas Extra Society’s president, mentioned in an interview that he noticed no conflicts of curiosity with the connections and communications between himself, his regulation agency and Gableman. And he turned offended when pressed to make clear these relationships.

“We labored with him on the investigation,” Brejcha mentioned of the reference to Gableman, later including that “we wished to know the character of the investigation and the way we may assist.”

Gableman had shared data with them, he mentioned, however nothing that was confidential.

“I am positive we have exchanged details about issues of public concern,” Brejcha mentioned, including that he is talked with Gableman “a handful of occasions however declined” to say how typically or once they final spoke.

Attorneys for the Thomas Extra Society, Peter Breen, vice chairman and senior counsel, and Thomas Brejcha, president and chief counsel, pose of their Chicago workplaces on July 10, 2013. The Thomas Extra Society is enjoying a central however unofficial function within the investigation into Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential election. (Credit score: Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune)

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At one level, Brejcha accused Wisconsin Watch of launching an “assault” on Gableman. “I do not care to proceed this anymore,” he mentioned, and finally hung up.

Jeff Mandell, a Madison lawyer who makes a speciality of election regulation, mentioned it is an “unseemly” relationship between entities with completely different targets.

“There is definitely a blurring of strains,” he mentioned, “between what’s imagined to be an impartial authorities investigation and personal, partisan actors.”

‘Defend the folks from the federal government’

Kaardal has been a lawyer for the reason that early Nineteen Nineties and, in his personal phrases, has made a profession of suing the federal government.

“My viewpoint is that a very powerful factor for courts to do is defend the folks from the federal government,” he mentioned.

He is filed dozens of lawsuits in state and federal courts — a lot of them over election administration.

In 2012, Kaardal unsuccessfully challenged Minnesota’s same-day voter registration process, which Wisconsin additionally has. That lawsuit additionally alleged that Minnesota residents who had been underneath guardianship orders and ineligible to vote had been capable of register and forged ballots, a declare he is made in Wisconsin in current months in complaints he filed with the Wisconsin Elections Fee. The argument additionally failed in Minnesota, however Gableman included the allegations in his report and presentation in March.

In 2019, Kaardal represented a bunch of landlords in Minneapolis and St. Paul in a federal lawsuit that argued ordinances that required them to offer voter registration data to new tenants violated their First Modification proper to not communicate.

Kaardal and the landlords gained.

‘Christian heritage’ advocacy, ethics criticism

Because the 2020 election neared, Kaardal filed a flurry of lawsuits in a number of states.

He sued over masks mandated for in-person voting in Minnesota, which he misplaced. He represented Kanye West in his makes an attempt to get on the presidential poll in Wisconsin, and misplaced.

And in December 2020, he filed a lawsuit on behalf of plaintiffs together with the Wisconsin Voters Alliance — a part of a multi-state “election integrity watchdog” group — to stop Pence and Congress from counting the electoral votes on Jan. 6, arguing that solely state legislatures had the authority to certify the election.

The day after the election was licensed, Kaardal voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit in federal court docket in Washington, D.C. However that did not cease a federal decide from referring him to the Committee on Grievances for potential self-discipline. The decide known as Kaardal’s authorized principle “someplace between a willful misreading of the Structure and fantasy.” Kaardal is combating the referral. He declined to touch upon it.

Kaardal additionally co-authored a number of books, together with a 2013 tome that advocated for preserving ““the Christian cultural heritage” of the USA by way of immigration insurance policies that will restrict the variety of people who find themselves not Jewish or Christian to not more than 10% of the inhabitants.

In his 2013 ebook, Erick Kaardal, an lawyer for the Thomas Extra Society, argues for a nationwide immigration coverage to restrict non-Christians and non-Jews to lower than 10% of the U.S. inhabitants. Kaardal is enjoying a central however unofficial function within the election investigation led by former Wisconsin Supreme Court docket Justice Michael Gableman. (Credit score: Amazon.com)

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In an e mail, Kaardal defended his writing, saying, “The books, if one reads them, stand on their very own as an try and contribute to present political philosophy.”

Thomas Extra turns to elections

Because the early Nineteen Nineties, the Thomas Extra Society — which operates as a tax exempt 501(c)(3), the identical nonprofit designation as Wisconsin Watch — has spent a lot of its time and assets on anti-abortion and self-described household values lawsuits. It’s named after St. Thomas Extra, the patron saint of attorneys amongst Catholics.

The regulation agency efficiently defended a maternity shelter in Missouri that fought a state mandate to offer insurance coverage protection for contraception. And through the pandemic, it represented church buildings that refused to abide by government-issued COVID-19 restrictions, getting victories for a few of their shoppers.

In January, the agency gained a $75,000 settlement for a Louisville, Kentucky police officer who was investigated for marching in uniform with protesters exterior of an abortion clinic.

A yr earlier than the 2020 election, the general public curiosity regulation agency added “voter integrity” and “voter participation” to its mission assertion for the primary time. Kaardal advised Wisconsin Watch that the group had seen election administration points had “ripened” through the years and turn out to be “politicized.”

Mandell, the election regulation lawyer, mentioned regardless of the society being new to election litigation, “They’ve definitely include a vengeance for it in Wisconsin.”

Election grants at coronary heart of probe

In his March presentation to the committee, Gableman adopted the society’s oft-repeated declare that officers in 5 Democratic-leaning cities — Inexperienced Bay, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Madison and Racine — dedicated “election bribery” by accepting $8.8 million in grants.

Gableman’s cost is that officers in these “Zuckerberg 5” cities used unlawful grant cash from the Middle for Tech and Civic Life — which went to greater than 200 Wisconsin municipalities — to facilitate voting. The cash went towards coaching further election staff, including safe poll drop bins, conducting voter training campaigns and different duties.

The state election bribery regulation bans anybody from giving cash, employment or anything of worth to entice somebody to vote or not vote, or to vote a specific approach. Gableman devotes almost half of his 136-page interim report to those grants.

Michael Gableman delivers remarks to members of the Wisconsin Meeting elections committee on the State Capitol in Madison on March 1, 2022. Roughly half of Gableman’s report on his election investigation delivered that day was based mostly on work by lawyer Erick Kaardal and the nonprofit Thomas Extra Society regulation agency, who haven’t any official function within the taxpayer-funded probe. (Credit score: John Hart / Wisconsin State Journal)

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Previous to the election, Kaardal filed a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin over the CTCL cash, which a decide dismissed. After the election, he filed complaints with the Wisconsin Elections Fee, which had been additionally thrown out.

“We will not have third events utilizing personal cash to affect cities to do an unlawful … election administration,” Kaardal mentioned. “And in order that’s why we’re gonna win.”

However to date, that hasn’t occurred.

He is filed state and federal lawsuits over the CTCL grant cash in no less than 5 states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Georgia. Kaardal misplaced all of the lawsuits filed earlier than the election. Some fits Kaardal filed after the election stay pending.

Atiba Ellis, a Marquette College regulation college professor who makes a speciality of election regulation, mentioned grants to assist municipalities run elections are accepted apply throughout the nation.

“Wanting voters getting paid instantly out of those grants, it appears troublesome for me to make a connection between what the oldsters who’re getting these grants are doing and credible claims or bribery,” Ellis mentioned.

He mentioned labeling the grants as election bribery is “a harmful street to go down” as a result of native governments depend on grant cash to hold out all kinds of fundamental capabilities.

It is a “disservice to the regulation,” Ellis mentioned, “to recommend fraudulent habits on probably the most tenuous proof.”

Spreitzer, the Democratic Meeting member, mentioned he requested the Legislative Council for any case regulation supporting Gableman’s bribery declare. He mentioned there was none.

Kaardal’s self-styled competency exams

A second main Kaardal and the Thomas Extra Society declare that landed in Gableman’s report: that nursing house residents who lacked psychological capability to vote had forged absentee votes — a apply they name “voter abuse.”

In 4 circumstances, Gableman alleged that residents who had been discovered legally incompetent to vote had forged ballots, which raises questions in regards to the validity of these votes.

However in different circumstances, Gableman relied on Kaardal’s private evaluation to query a voter’s competence.

That isn’t how Wisconsin regulation works, nevertheless. Solely a decide within the context of a guardianship continuing can decide whether or not an individual has the psychological capability to forged a poll, in line with the Wisconsin Elections Fee. Being positioned underneath guardianship by itself doesn’t take away an individual’s proper to vote. And, “state regulation doesn’t enable for the best to vote to be taken away, even by members of the family, with out such an adjudication,” the elections company mentioned.

Gableman included movies of Kaardal interviewing nursing house residents together with their guardians — who’re additionally Kaardal’s shoppers — in his presentation to the Meeting elections committee in March. He mentioned he obtained his shoppers’ approval earlier than sharing them.

Kaardal requested a couple of most popular selection between hypothetical candidates — one who wished to boost taxes and one other who did not — in addition to questions on what occurs on Election Day and the way a winner is picked. The befuddled residents typically stumbled over their solutions to Kaardal’s typically long-winded questions.

Erick Kaardal interviews nursing house resident Sandra Klitzke in a screenshot from a WisEye video performed at a March 1, 2022 Wisconsin Meeting elections committee listening to. Klitzke’s final identify is misspelled on the video. (Credit score: Courtesy of WisEye)

Gableman described Kaardal’s check as “questions which can be put out by the elections boards to assist decide whether or not somebody has the acuity to have the ability to make a realizing selection for voting. He is not making these questions up. They’re standardized questions to find out if a possible voter has the psychological capability to vote.”

However Kaardal described them a lot otherwise. He advised Wisconsin Watch he discovered the questions on-line in a regulation evaluation or medical journal article. Whereas on the cellphone with a reporter, Kaardal looked for the article and its questions on-line, however couldn’t discover them.

“I do not even know if I spent the time saving it, however I ought to have,” he mentioned. “… I discovered it on-line. If I searched slightly bit extra I may discover it. However in case you simply put in ‘competency evaluation check for voting,’ I feel you will find yourself discovering the place I discovered it.”

The highest Google search outcomes for “competency evaluation check for voting” embody a Wikipedia article describing literacy exams that some jurisdictions used to disenfranchise Black voters for an extended stretch of American historical past. Such exams have been banned for greater than 50 years, for the reason that passage of the Voting Rights Act.

‘Their voting rights should be upheld’

Barbara Beckert, of the advocacy group Incapacity Rights Wisconsin, picked aside Kaardal’s self-styled competency examination through the Wisconsin Elections Fee assembly in March.

“Wisconsin doesn’t require or enable voting exams that folks should move to be able to vote — nor ought to they,” Beckert mentioned. “No voter in Wisconsin has ever (been) requested such a query, and voters are by no means requested to elucidate why they vote for a specific candidate.”

Federal regulation requires Medicaid-certified long run care amenities to help residents who wish to vote, she mentioned, “And we’re involved that because of these investigations, care facility workers are actually afraid to help residents with voting.”

Beckert added that “It is discriminatory and unconscionable to disenfranchise Wisconsin residents just because they reside in a care facility. Their voting rights should be upheld.”

After Gableman confirmed the movies through the March 1 listening to, Spreitzer mentioned he submitted an open information request for the total, unedited model of the interviews. He was advised Gableman did not have them — elevating but extra questions, Spreitzer mentioned, in regards to the function of Kaardal and the Thomas Extra Society within the investigation.

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, different information media and the College of Wisconsin-Madison College of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, printed, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch don’t essentially replicate the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its associates.