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Categories: Ethical Government, Judicial Ethics, One Wisconsin Now - The "tOWN Hall"
After asking three separate law enforcement agencies and the Government Accountability Board to investigate questionable calls made by then-Ashland County District Attorney Michael Gableman, One Wisconsin Now has filed a complaint with the state Office of Lawyer Regulation (OLR).
Months ago, One Wisconsin Now discovered that Michael Gableman made many questionable calls, when he was the Ashland County District Attorney. Those calls were to many key Republican officials, operatives, campaigns, and fundraisers, all on a state phone. These calls didn’t happen in a vacuum, they happened weeks surrounding a fundraiser that Gableman hosted for then-Gov. Scott McCallum. Further, the calls happened at the same time that campaigning on state time was prominent in the news because of the caucus scandal.
Previously One Wisconsin Now asked the Government Accountability Board to investigate the Gableman calls but it said that it couldn’t because the activity occurred more than three years ago. OWN also asked District Attorneys in both Burnett and Ashland Counties to investigate the matter but, they both suggested that the matter was not within their authority and recommended that we forward the complaint to Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. Unfortunately his office claimed that it did not have the statutory authority to investigate nor to appoint a special prosecutor. In the mean time the six year statute of limitations was allowed to run out. The OLR retains full authority to investigate a matter for a full ten years after the fact.
A very detailed chart is available which provides all of the people and dates involved in Gableman’s questionable calls. They strongly suggest that he may have violated the penal provisions of Wisconsin Statutes in a manner that reflects poorly on his honesty, trustworthiness, and fitness as a lawyer. In May Gableman claimed that he couldn’t recall “the exact content of conversations six years ago,” hopefully the OLR will investigate further and demand that Gableman actually start answering some very serious questions.
