April 29, 2021
Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu reappointed Robert Spindell to another five-year term on the Wisconsin Elections Commission today, even though Spindell acted as a “fraudulent elector” last December, according to a complaint currently pending before the Commission and a letter to the Milwaukee County district attorney.
But that doesn’t seem to bother LeMahieu, who showered praise on Spindell.
“Bob Spindell has been a force for good during his time on the Commission speaking out on critical issues and advocating for the rule of law,” LeMahieu said. “Bob is a fighter. That is exactly what Wisconsin needs on this bipartisan commission, especially when election integrity is at stake. I’m excited to re-appoint Bob because I know he will do the hard work, follow the law, and continue fighting to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat in Wisconsin.”
Problem is, Spindell wasn’t following the law, according to the complaint filed on Feb. 15 by the SEIU Wisconsin State Council and its attorneys at Law Forward.
Spindell was one of 10 Republicans who, on Dec. 14, 2020, tried to pass themselves off as the official electors from Wisconsin to the Electoral College, even though Joe Biden had won Wisconsin, and the Democratic electors from Wisconsin were the legitimate ones to vote in the Electoral College.
According to the complaint, Spindell and the other fraudulent electors:
“a) falsely claimed to be “the duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Wisconsin”;
“b) declared that they had met “to perform the duties enjoined upon us,” even though the only obligation they had under the Wisconsin Statutes was to refrain from meeting, given that the candidates to whom they were pledged had not won Wisconsin’s election; and
“c) each signed their names to “certify” that Wisconsin’s ten electoral votes were cast for Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence, though they knew that was not true and that their documents were fraudulent.”
The complaint goes on:
“The fraudulent electors then conveyed these documents, with knowledge that the documents were not legally valid, to several federal and state officials as an ostensible record of “Wisconsin’s Electoral Votes for President and Vice President.” The officials to whom the fraudulent electors sent these documents included the President of the United States Senate, the Wisconsin Secretary of State, the Archivist of the United States, and the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. …
“The only reasonable inference that can be drawn from these documents is that the fraudulent electors created and delivered these documents for the purpose, and with the intent, that they be received as valid documentation for the purpose of inducing the United States Congress to credit the wrong candidates with having earned Wisconsin’s ten electoral votes. It therefore appears that the fraudulent electors met in a concerted effort to ensure that they would be mistaken, as a result of their deliberate forgery and fraud, for Wisconsin’s legitimate Presidential Electors, chosen by the mechanism prescribed under the United States Constitution, federal law, and the Wisconsin Statutes.”
This complaint is still pending before the Wisconsin Elections Commission, and Spindell has an obligation to recuse himself from it, obviously. But whether he will or not remains to be seen.
Law Forward also sent a letter on Feb. 15 to Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm, urging him to investigate Spindell and the other nine Republicans.
“The fraudulent electors appear to have violated multiple provisions of Wisconsin’s criminal code,” lawyers Jeffrey Mandell and Mel Barnes wrote.
And they spelled out the alleged felonies, including “forgery,” “falsely assuming to act as a public officer,” “misconduct in public office,” and “conspiracy to commit criminal acts.”
In their letter to Chisholm, Mandell and Barnes said: “We write to request your assistance in investigating these events, determining that they violate longstanding Wisconsin law, and helping deter others from ever attempting such a grave and brazen offense against our democracy.”
Chisholm responded by telling them that someone in his office has been assigned to this matter.