Bice: Supreme Court candidate Daniel Kelly was paid $120,000 by Republicans to work on 'election integrity,' advise on fake electors

This story was republished Feb. 6, 2024, to make it free for all readers.

Former state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly — who has been critical of his opponents for their partisanship — has been paid nearly $120,000 by the state Republican Party and the Republican National Committee over the past two years for his work on election issues.

In that role, Kelly was at the center of the discussion in December 2020 with top Wisconsin Republicans over their highly controversial plan to covertly convene a group of Republicans inside the state Capitol in the weeks following Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden to sign paperwork falsely claiming to be electors.

Former state Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt said in a deposition last year to the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that he and Kelly had "pretty extensive conversations" about the fake elector scheme. Kelly was serving as the party's "special counsel" at the time.

The Republican scheme eventually failed, and the state's Democratic electors officially cast the state’s 10 electoral votes for Biden, who won Wisconsin by nearly 21,000 votes in 2020.

"I had brought him on in Wisconsin to kind of help with — he's from Wisconsin," Hitt said of Kelly in his testimony. "I brought him on to kind of advise on election law matters."

Kelly is one of four candidates running for the state Supreme Court in next Tuesday's primary. Also running are Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow, Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz.

The outcome of the race will determine the political direction of the high court, where conservatives now hold a 4-3 majority. The position of state Supreme Court justice is officially nonpartisan.

More:Big special interest money is flowing into the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Dan Kelly says that's good for him.

In talking up his own candidacy, Kelly, a conservative, has been harshly critical of Protasiewicz for saying she supports abortion rights and holds liberal "values" on other hot-button issues.

"The media and her allies can deny it and run cover for her all day long, but when @janetforjustice tells you that she'll put her thumb on the scales of justice, believe her," Kelly tweeted earlier this month.

Kelly was being paid by the Republicans as recently as December

But records show Kelly, 58, was cashing checks from the Republican Party as recently as December. Kelly was appointed to Supreme Court in 2016 by Republican Gov. Scott Walker but was defeated in April 2020 by Jill Karofsky.

According to federal election records, the Republican National Committee paid Kelly and his firm, Daniel Kelly Consulting, $110,000 from March to December 2022 for "legal and compliance services." That includes $40,000 in payments he received from the RNC after he announced he was running for the open seat on the high court in September.

He lists the RNC as a client on his ethics statement, describing himself as a spokesman for the national party.

Kelly received another $8,534.55 from the state Republican Party between January 2021 and July 2022 through the party's state and federal accounts for "legal services." Kelly told a Republican Party meeting in June that he was retained to work on "election integrity issues," according to a transcript of the meeting.

Kelly ran his 2020 campaign from the Republican Party headquarters

This isn't the first time that Kelly has been closely tied to the Republican Party. He ran his losing 2020 bid for the state Supreme Court from the GOP headquarters in Madison, according to several news outlets.

Kelly has also questioned the conservative credentials of Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn for joining the court's three liberals in a 4-3 decision throwing out Trump's lawsuit attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss. Kelly had previously endorsed Hagedorn.  

Sam Roecker, a Protasiewicz spokesman, said Friday that it is clear that Kelly is the partisan candidate in the Supreme Court contest.

"There’s no doubt Dan Kelly is a partisan extremist, as much as he’d like to dishonestly pretend otherwise," Roecker said. "His continued efforts to overturn Wisconsin's 2020 presidential election results are disqualifying."

But Jim Dick, spokesman for Kelly, disputed that point.

"After completing his time on the Supreme Court, Daniel Kelly provided legal counsel to several clients, amongst which were the RNC and RPW," Dick said. "It is a maxim in the legal profession that the views of clients are not attributable to their attorneys."

As for whether he would hear cases involving the Republican Party if elected to the Supreme Court, Dick said Kelly's method of analyzing and deciding cases "is designed to prevent personal values from interfering with the work of the court." He didn't describe that method in any detail.

Dick added, "If a former client were to come before the court, Justice Kelly would follow the recusal guidance all Supreme Court justices are required to honor."

House Jan. 6 committee testimony describes Kelly's role with the GOP

In his testimony to the Jan. 6 committee, Hitt said he hired Kelly in 2020 to advise on election matters.

"I think he started in August (2020)," Hitt testified under oath, even though Kelly's first payment did not come for another five months. Hitt said Kelly was given the title "special counsel."

"You know, in April — March-April of 2020, through the summer, as a result of the pandemic, there were, at one point, seven legal — seven different pieces of litigation going on regarding election laws and procedures," Hitt continued. "It just — it was too much to be able to keep up with, so I brought him on to kind of help — help manage that and advise on it."

During his testimony, Hitt was asked extensively about the state Republican Party’s efforts to convene an alternative slate of fake electors in late 2020. This was part of a national effort by Trump and his team to overturn his loss and pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify Biden’s win on Jan. 6, 2021.

In Wisconsin, a group of 10 Republicans met in the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, to submit paperwork falsely claiming to be Trump electors, despite deep skepticism and discomfort on the part of Hitt and Republican Party executive director Mark Jefferson. The operation involved discussions of taking multiple cars and hiding in rooms in the Capitol to avoid detection, according to Hitt's text messages.

The meeting took place on the same day that the actual Democratic electors chosen by the voters cast the state's 10 electoral votes for Biden.

During the Republican Party planning for the Capitol meeting, Hitt told investigators that he consulted primarily with Kelly and Joe Olson, another longtime attorney for the Republican Party.

Hitt was asked if he had raised the question about whether there had been a meeting of alternative electors in Wisconsin in past elections. Hitt said, “Mr. Olson and I and then another lawyer, Mr. Kelly, and I, you know, had some pretty extensive conversations. I don't recall if I ever asked that specific question.”

Hitt told investigators that he spoke with his special counsel, meaning Kelly, at 11 a.m. on Dec. 7, 2020, and "worked our way through the issue" of the alternate elector plan. Hitt did not say what specific legal advice he received from Kelly.

"(I) specifically called him and asked whether or not he was in the loop on this alternate electors meeting," Hitt said. "He said he wasn't." The two talked for about a half hour, Hitt said, while "thinking through the issues."

Hitt said he was encouraged to move forward with the fake elector meeting just in case the pending court cases challenging the results of the 2020 presidential prevailed. According to Hitt, the outcome of the lawsuits would be irrelevant if the slate of fake Republican electors didn't meet on Dec. 14, 2020.

"Who was the legal counsel who told you this?" an investigator asked.

"Mr. Olson," Hitt replied.

"Was it any other people (sic) that you recall told you that?" the investigator responded.

"I think I only really talked with Mr. Olson and Mr. Kelly," Hitt said.

So what advice did Kelly give the state GOP leader in December 2020? Dick said those matters are covered by attorney-client privilege, so Kelly can't discuss them.

But Kelly will offer this thoughts on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Said Dick: "Justice Kelly believes Joe Biden is the duly elected president of the United States."

Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.