Sen. Leah Vukmir (R-Brookfield)
State Senator Leah Vukmir says she wants to know if staff at the former Government Accountability Board and investigators broke the law when they collected her emails and those of other conservatives and, if any did, she believes they should go to jail.
The emails, along with chat logs, included personal emails sent between the senator and her daughter. They were taken during an ethics investigation into possible illegal campaigning by state workers. The probe was closed without any charges filed.
During a Wispolitics.com event in Madison Tuesday, the Brookfield Republican described it as an invasion of her privacy, and argued anyone involved should resign or be fired. “I would like to see…that people definitely lose their jobs over this,” she said. “If, indeed, there were things that were done illegally, I believe that some of the things that happened, people should go to jail for this.”
Her comments came just hours before Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald sent a letter to the Department of Justice, indicating he plans to ask the agency to reopen and expand its investigation that revealed that the former GAB had been investigating Vukmir and others.
Vukmir said she’s currently exploring her options when it comes to pursuing possible civil action against prosecutors or agency staff, but declined to elaborate on what that might include. She has joined other Republicans in calling for the administrators of the Wisconsin Ethics and Elections Commission, which were formed when the GAB was dissolved, to resign.
Vukmir is currently running for the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race.