A Wisconsin judge slammed Attorney General Josh Kaul in a blistering order on Friday, accusing Kaul of abusing Wisconsin’s justice system and of making “blatantly false representations about the underlying record” to “one or more appellate courts.”
Judge W. Andrew Voigt, of Columbia County, tossed Kaul’s lawsuit trying to prevent Elon Musk from giving money to petition signers. Musk’s legal team had accused Kaul, a partisan liberal, of trying to violate Musk’s free speech rights.
Voigt wrote that, substantively, Kaul’s legal filing was “even more gravely deficient.”
Read the order here.
The judge even raised the question of whether Kaul had actively deceived the appellate court, writing that Kaul’s legal filing “leads to obvious questions about whether there was intentional procedural deceit intended.”
“Plaintiff’s conduct does not meet this Court’s expectations for parties appearing before it and it is this Court’s opinion that Wisconsin’s system of justice was abused by this case,” Voigt wrote in the order. “The Attorney General of the State of Wisconsin has at least as much duty to follow and uphold the law as any other litigant or party and shouldn’t expect to be treated differently. That obligation was breached.”
The judge added, “This action, which sought ex parte injunctive relief, was filed shortly before the Dane County Courthouse closed for the day and week. That circumstance, coupled with the late filing of documents purportedly supportive of the relief sought, leads to obvious questions about whether there was intentional procedural deceit intended. Those concerns are exacerbated when blatantly false representations about the underlying record are made to one or more appellate courts.”
The judge said he did not make a decision before the Musk rally because Kaul “hadn’t met the basic legal requirements for such relief and that the pleadings were so deficient that he wasn’t entitled to a hearing.”
Voigt wrote that Kaul’s subsequent Petition to the Court of Appeals “makes reference to Exhibits B, C and D which Plaintiff represents were ‘filed’ with the Circuit Court. However, a simple check of the public access to CCAP would have confirmed that those documents had not been processed by the Dane County Clerk of Courts Office on Friday, and as a result, not been viewed or considered by this Court.”
Musk had initially said the two $1 million checks would go to people who voted in the state Supreme Court race but then clarified that post, saying that the money would go to people who signed his petition against activist judges, which is not illegal. Yet Kaul proceeded with his lawsuit anyway, which made it all the way up to the liberal state Supreme Court, which declined to act before Musk’s rally.
According to Voigt’s order, Kaul’s Summons and Complaint “did not allege irreparable harm and ignored entirely the requirement that there be no other adequate remedy at law. Failure of the pleadings was fatal to Plaintiff’s requested relief.”
Voigt was elected as a judge in 2011 and again in 2017, according to Ballotpedia. Before that, he was the Portage, Wisconsin, city attorney.
Kaul defended himself, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he “takes seriously its role in protecting free and fair elections in Wisconsin.”
According to Voigt, “Sadly, Plaintiff’s conduct has come at substantial cost to the legal system. Both Dane County and Columbia County have likely incurred overtime expenses because Plaintiff chose to commence this action at the close of business on a Friday. Multiple courts have been chased about and forced to invest a substantial portion of a weekend reviewing materials and conducting legal research. Staff supporting these courts have been equally burdened. This Court has received an unprecedented volume of hate email and voice mail making highly derogatory and inappropriate comments.”
