A judicial oversight commission has dismissed a complaint against a libertarian-leaning Wisconsin Supreme Court justice who accused former President Donald Trump of making racist insinuations in a case challenging the 2020 election results in battleground states. He was accused of trying to protect his “king”. ,
Judicial complaints are confidential under Wisconsin law, but Justice Jill Karofsky released documents to The Associated Press on Saturday that shows a complaint filed against her by a retired lawyer in Maryland two years ago with the Wisconsin Judicial Commission. The commission decided not to discipline him in November 2022 but warned him to remain neutral and avoid making sarcastic remarks from the bench.
Karofsky’s attorney told the commission in a letter Tuesday that Karofsky was trying to shield the US government and accused the panel of allowing itself to become a political weapon.
“The Judicial Code (sic) requires judges to act with impartiality toward the parties, but does not require a judge to turn a blind eye to dangerous, bad-faith conduct by an attorney or pleader,” Karofsky said in an email to the AP, citing a passage from her lawyer’s responses to the commission. “Judges don’t need to read the code to be mouse-quiet when the parties are arguing in favor of a slow-motion coup d’état.”
Trump filed the lawsuit in December 2020 after a recount in Wisconsin confirmed Democrat Joe Biden had won the state by nearly 21,000 votes. The filing was one of several lawsuits that Trump has filed in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn the election results in several states and stay in office.
The Wisconsin lawsuit asked the state Supreme Court to throw out nearly 171,000 absentee ballots cast in Dane and Milwaukee counties. The conservative-leaning court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit by a 4-3 vote, with swing justice Brian Hagadorn casting the deciding vote to uphold Biden’s victory in the battleground states.
Maryland Attorney Fletcher Thompson filed a complaint against Karofsky in January 2021, accusing him of being hostile toward Trump attorney Jim Troupis. He said that during oral arguments Karofsky told Troupis that the lawsuit “smells of racism” because it sought to bolster absentee ballots in two of Wisconsin’s most diverse counties.
Thompson said that Karofsky later told Troupis that he wanted the court to overturn the election results “so that your king remains in power” and that suggesting the election was influenced by fraud “is nothing short of shameful. “
Thompson accused Karofsky of inappropriately launching personal attacks against Troupis. He said his remarks revealed political and racial bias. He said that Trump endorsed Karofsky’s opponent, Daniel Kelly, during his run in the spring of 2020.
In her February 7 letter, Karofsky’s attorney, Stacey Rosenzweig, called out the judicial commission for letting partisan actors “hijack the disciplinary system, in an effort to silence a justice who has committed frivolous and blatant crimes that undermine our democracy.” Tried to stop dangerous arguments.”
“We believe that the Commission risks setting a dangerous precedent,” Rosenzweig wrote. “By allowing the Commission to be weaponized in this way, the Commission became a pawn of those determined to undermine an independent judiciary.”
Thompson said in a telephone interview Saturday that he was not aware that the commission had decided not to discipline Karofsky. He said he wished the commission had taken action against him, but he was not disappointed with the result as he did not expect the commission to investigate even when he filed his complaint.
But he said he was appalled that Rosenzweig accused the panel of being a political pawn. He said he was just a retired attorney who watched the oral debate on YouTube and had no affiliation with Trump or Trump’s campaign.