Wisconsin secretary of state calls for fake Trump elector to be removed from elections commission

Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski (D) is calling for a Republican who served as a fake elector for former President Trump to be removed from the state elections commission after admitting he was trying to overturn the 2020 election.

In a letter sent to state Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R), Godlewski urged him to remove Robert Spindell Jr. from the Wisconsin Elections Commission, where he serves with two other Republicans and three Democrats. She pointed to the lawsuit settled with the Wisconsin fake electors last week.

“I find it abhorrent that Election Commissioner Robert Spindell Jr. knowingly submitted a fraudulent election document to Wisconsin’s Secretary of State as part of a larger coordinated effort to overturn the will of the people,” Godlewski wrote.

“Wisconsin deserves Election Commissioners that have the utmost respect for the law and a strong moral compass,” she continued. “Based on his acknowledgement of his role in the scheme to overturn the election, I am calling on you to immediately remove Robert Spindell from the Election Commission.”

Spindell was one of the 10 Wisconsin fake Trump electors who conceded their actions were part of an effort to overturn the state’s election results in a settlement last week. This was part of a $2.4 million lawsuit filed by Democratic electors.

The 10 Republicans will not need to pay for any damages or attorney’s fees as part of the deal, but they pledged not to serve as electors in 2024 or in any election where Trump is on the ballot and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department’s ongoing and future investigations into the matter.

A similar pro-Trump fake elector scheme is a key part of the large 2020 election criminal case.

LeMahieu first appointed Spindell to the commission in 2019 and reappointed him to the commission in 2021 for a five-year term. Spindell will then be a member of the commission through the 2024 election unless he steps down or is removed.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Godlewski said Spindell lacks the “moral compass or ability to follow the law and he needs to be removed.”

Her office does not directly oversee the elections in Wisconsin, but it receives the certificate of votes from the state’s electors. In 2020, her office received the fake certificate from Republican electors and last week, her office was notified that the 10 Wisconsin Republicans had acknowledged their certificate in 2020 was “fraudulent.”

“Wisconsinites deserve a Wisconsin’s Election Commissioner who will uphold the law and not defraud the government. The information and acknowledgement I am sharing about Commissioner Spindell clearly warrants your action to remove him from this important role in our democracy,” her letter concluded.

LeMahieu said in a statement to The Hill that he will not be removing Spindell from the commission, noting that the settlement states that those 10 Republicans “admit no guilt or culpability.”

“Liberal groups sought millions of dollars in court, and instead walked away with nothing,” LeMahieu said. “The Trump electors’ actions were an effort to support an ultimately-failed legal strategy. Not a sinister plot to overturn an election.”

–Updated at 2:23 p.m.