A Columbia County judge accused Dem AG Josh Kaul of abusing Wisconsin’s judicial system with his last-minute attempt to prevent Elon Musk from handing out $1 million checks to those who have voted in the spring election.
In a formal order dismissing the suit Kaul originally filed, Columbia County Judge Andrew Voigt also slammed the filing as “woefully deficient considering the nature of the order that was sought” and accused the AG of making false representations about how it was handed by his court.
In his filing with the 4th District Court of Appeals, Kaul wrote Voigt “refused to hear the motion for a temporary restraining order” prior to Musk’s planned rally last Sunday in Green Bay.
Instead, Voigt wrote in Tuesday’s order, he determined DOJ wasn’t entitled to an order barring Musk from handing out awards to those who had voted because the agency “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.”
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There is a four-step test that judges are supposed to apply in determining whether to grant a temporary restraining order. Voigt added Kaul’s filing displayed “total ignorance” of at least two elements required.
In a statement, Kaul defended his agency’s actions, saying he was “proud of the extraordinary effort our team put into this case.”
“The Wisconsin Department of Justice takes seriously its role in protecting free and fair elections in Wisconsin,” Kaul said. “The DOJ team on this case took rapid action, submitting filings on a highly compressed timeframe in this matter that sought to help protect the integrity of the recent election.”
Kaul originally filed the action in Dane County a week ago after Musk first posted on X that he planned to hand out two $1 million awards at a rally in Green Bay in appreciation to those who had voted. It is illegal to give anyone something of value for voting in Wisconsin, and Musk pulled down the original post. Instead, he subsequently promoted the awards as going to two people who would be chosen to serve as spokespeople for his America PAC.
Kaul proceeded with the suit, which was transferred to Columbia County, arguing that Musk and America PAC hadn’t formally announced the original offer was rescinded. Both the 4th District Court of Appeals and the state Supreme Court over the weekend rejected his request.
Voigt wrote the effort had burdened court staff in Wisconsin, including likely overtime costs for those in Dane and Columbia counties, because it was originally filed after close of business a week ago. Then “multiple courts have been chased about and forced to invest a substantial portion of a weekend reviewing materials and conducting legal research.” The 4th District Court of Appeals on Saturday rejected Kaul’s request, while the state Supreme Court did the same on Sunday.
Voigt added in his order that he had “received an unprecedented volume of hate mail and voice mail making highly derogatory and inappropriate comments.”
