At the beginning of September, Wisconsin Speaker Robin Vos threatened to impeach Justice Janet Protasiewicz,if she did not recuse herself from cases regarding the GOP's gerrymandered maps.
A week and a half later, Vos backpedaled from the threat, denying that he ever made the threat at all. He blamed the accusations on the Democrats and the supposed liberal mainstream media for running with that ugly, ugly lie in order for the Democrats to use it as a fundraiser.
Sadly, the media was apparently too busy doing all their liberal duties to ask Vos to explain this:
The very next day after Vos denied threatening to impeach Protasiewicz, it was reported that Vos formed a panel of former Justices to look at the criteria and process of impeaching Protasiewicz:
"I am asking a panel of former members of the state supreme court to review and advise what the criteria are for impeachment and to be able to go to the next step of this process. If we're not able to determine an off ramp," Vos said in an interview on WISN-AM.
[...]
"I don't have any fear of having a fair process. But if you have a justice that has predetermined cases, and is not going to take themselves off the case, I want to know what all of our options are so that we are ready to go if it is required, you know, that is my last option."
Vos has been playing the panel very close to his chest and has given no information regarding who is on it or what they are exactly look for. It later came out that former Justice David Prosser was one of the panelists because Prosser himself admitted it.
Last week, the watchdog group American Oversight filed a complaint that Vos panel was violating open meeting laws. They also filed a lawsuit against the panel for the same issue, asking the court to halt the work of the panel. The court denied the request based on the fact that the county district attorney has 20 days to investigate the complaint and file a lawsuit if deemed appropriate to do so.
But that's not the kicker. The real kicker is that Vos's attorney denied that there even was a panel:
An attorney for Assembly Speaker Robin Vos argued Friday that there is no "secret panel" advising the Rochester Republican on the potential impeachment of state Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz, as a liberal watchdog group argued any such discussions should be made public.
Vos attorney Matthew Fernholz characterized the situation as a legislator speaking with people who have expertise in a particular subject, similar to what might happen in the drafting of legislation.
"There is no panel that is necessarily formed or going to prepare a formal report at this point. It is merely Speaker Vos speaking to individuals," Fernholz told Dane County District Judge Frank Remington during a hearing.
"The secret panel does not exist," he said later.
To help the reader play along, the summary would be that Vos has called for a secret non-panel panel to do a probe into a non-impeachment impeachment for a supreme court justice who has done nothing wrong but pose a threat to his gerrymandered maps by restoring justice to the state of Wisconsin. I hope that clears things right up for you.
