The U.S. Air Force this week announced a successful flight of an unmanned jet with advanced artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities that move it a step closer to its goal of having pilots fly alongside AI-managed wingmen.

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced Wednesday that an XQ-58A Valkyrie flew a three-hour sortie in late July that was directed by AI and machine-learning systems developed by the lab. While avoiding some details, AFRL said the plane demonstrated the ability to process information needed to complete the mission that should contribute to the Air Force’s plan to expand the use of autonomous aircraft.

‘The mission proved out a multi-layer safety framework on an AI/ML-flown uncrewed aircraft and demonstrated an AI/ML agent solving a tactically relevant ‘challenge problem’ during airborne operations,’ said Col. Tucker Hamilton, the Air Force’s AI test and operations chief. 

‘This sortie officially enables the ability to develop AI/ML agents that will execute modern air-to-air and air-to-surface skills that are immediately transferrable to other autonomy programs.’

A spokesperson for the Air Force confirmed to Fox News Digital the test is seen as a step toward the goal of building a collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) system. The goal is to develop autonomous AI and machine-learning powered aircraft that can fly with and help human pilots make faster combat decisions.

In March, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he’s planning on using at least 1,000 CCAs once they are up and running. ‘

‘CCAs will dramatically improve the performance of our crewed aircraft and significantly reduce the risks our pilots face,’ Kendall said in remarks to the Air Force Association.

The Air Force spokesperson said the CCA program is still under development, which means it’s not clear exactly what role AI-managed aircraft would play alongside human pilots on a mission. But the spokesperson said the goal is to have the AI systems run more of the routine systems and process data during the mission, leaving the pilot with more time to concentrate on the critical aspects of the mission.

An analogous example of autonomous systems already incorporated in U.S. fighter jets is the automated ground collision avoidance system, developed over the years because pilots in a steep dive can lose consciousness before they’re able to recover the plane.

‘That’s an example of autonomy we’re already using,’ the spokesperson said. ‘So, we’re trying to mature these algorithms so they can do more and more for us.’

‘AI will be a critical element to future warfighting and the speed at which we’re going to have to understand the operational picture and make decisions,’ said Brig. Gen. Scott Cain, AFRL commander. 

‘AI, autonomous operations and human machine teaming continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace, and we need the coordinated efforts of our government, academia and industry partners to keep pace.’

The Air Force budget proposal for 2024 proposed spending $490 million on the CCA program, which it said would ‘allow our Air Force to maintain effective deterrence and control the skies.’

‘By accelerating development of CCAs, the Air Force will be able to augment current and future platforms with lower cost complementary systems that increase lethality and exchange ratios in highly contested environments,’ the budget said. 

The Air Force bills the XQ-58A as a low-cost option compared to piloted aircraft that can be used for several missions but one that is ‘built at a cost that permits it to be a combat loss.’

The Air Force asked Congress for $5.8 billion over five years for the CCA program.

A Colorado gun reform law that will prohibit people under 21 years old from purchasing a gun will go into effect on Monday.

SB23-169, one of several sweeping gun reform measures approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor in the spring, will prohibit people under the age of 21 from purchasing a gun, with exceptions for active members of the U.S. armed forces, peace officers and people certified by the Peace Officer Standards and Training board.

Local gun shops and shooting ranges say the new law might lower profit, but they are more worried about the people who will be unable to protect themselves.

‘People under the age of 21 are no longer going to have the right to defend themselves with firearms,’ DCF Guns store manager Kevin Day told Fox 21. ‘The best thing we can do is continue to educate the public.’

Some gun groups, including the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, have filed lawsuits against Democrat Gov. Jared Polis and the State of Colorado in an attempt to strike down the new law, The organization filed a Temporary Restraining Order to potentially prevent the law from going into effect, arguing that it is unconstitutional.

RMGO said if people are allowed to vote when they are 18, they should be allowed to purchase a gun.

‘You can be drafted into the military. You can go and die for your country, but you can’t own a gun. That’s just wrong,’ RMGO Executive Director Taylor Rhodes told Fox 21.

State sponsors of the legislation said it is meant to protect young people, not to criminalize responsible gun owners.

‘This isn’t trying to infringe on anybody’s rights … What it comes down to is saving lives, we know that youth suicide has increased,’ Majority House Leader Monica Duran, Majority House Leader told the outlet. ‘We know domestic violence has increased.’

Duran, a Democrat, said limiting access to guns is a way to improve public safety.

‘The easier it is to access something, the more likelihood that it can be used in a way that could be detrimental to not just our youth but our community,’ she said.

–>

A Texas judge ruled Friday that the abortion ban in the Lone Star State has shown to be too restrictive for women with serious pregnancy complications and that the law must allow exceptions in which doctors would not be concerned about criminal charges.

The ruling by State District Judge Jessica Mangrum is the first to put a dent in Texas’ abortion law since it took effect last year following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which allowed states to make their own laws regarding abortions. And supporters of abortion access view the Texas case as a potential model to weaken restrictions in other Republican-led states with abortion bans. 

The challenge is also believed to be the first in the country brought by women who have been denied abortions since the Supreme Court’s decision.

But the injunction was immediately blocked by an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, according to the state attorney general’s office.

‘The trial court’s injunction is ineffective, and the status quo remains in effect,’ spokesperson Paige Willey said.

Mangrum’s ruling granted a temporary injunction preventing Texas from enforcing the ban against physicians who use ‘good faith judgment’ to terminate a pregnancy that creates a risk of infection or is otherwise unsafe for the woman to continue because of complications.

The injunction also applies to women who have a condition ‘exacerbated by pregnancy’ and cannot be effectively treated during their pregnancy. 

Additionally, the ruling covers instances where the fetus has a condition that makes it unlikely to survive after birth.

‘For the first time in a long time, I cried for joy when I heard the news,’ lead plaintiff Amanda Zurawski said in a statement. ‘This is exactly why we did this. This is why we put ourselves through the pain and the trauma over and over again to share our experiences and the harms caused by these awful laws.’

Mangrum said the injunction would stay in place until the case is completed. A trial for the case is scheduled to begin on March 25.

According to a statement from First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster, however, the state’s immediate appeal ‘stays an activist Austin judge’s attempt to override Texas abortion laws pending a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court.’

The immediate impact of Friday’s ruling is also unclear after all abortion clinics in the state have closed in the past year.

The judge found that portions of the abortion law violated the rights of pregnant women under the Texas Constitution.

The women challenging the law were determined to have each experienced ’emergent medical conditions’ during pregnancy that put their health or lives at risk and ‘required abortion care.’ They were delayed or denied abortion access because of uncertainty about the possibility of physicians facing criminal charges for providing abortions, the ruling said.

‘Today’s ruling should prevent other Texans from suffering the unthinkable trauma our plaintiffs endured,’ said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which helped bring the lawsuit.

Under Texas’ law, doctors who perform abortions could face life in prison and fines of up to $100,000.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

–>

EXCLUSIVE: The No. 3 House Republican, GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, is calling on the Biden administration to fire a federal health official who previously oversaw New York’s deadly COVID-19 nursing home policy.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Deputy Director for Global Health Howard Zucker joined the administration in January 2021. He got the job about a year and a half after he was forced to resign as New York State health commissioner amid accusations that then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration hid how many people really died in nursing homes during the pandemic.

‘Disgraced, corrupt Cuomo’s health director Howard Zucker is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of New York seniors,’ Stefanik, R-N.Y. told Fox News Digital.

She called Zucker a ‘Cuomo henchman’ and accused him of leading ‘the criminal corruption scandal and coverup of the deaths’ of New Yorkers living in nursing homes at the time.

NEW YORK ‘AT THE DESPERATION STAGE’ DUE TO MIGRANT CRISIS AS SHELTERS HIT CAPACITY: REPORT 

‘I call on Biden’s CDC to immediately fire Howard Zucker. I will continue fighting to deliver accountability to the New York families who tragically lost loved ones because of Cuomo and Zucker,’ Stefanik said.

Other New York Republicans also joined her calls for Zucker’s removal.

MIGRANTS OVERWHELM MIDTOWN MANHATTAN SIDEWALKS: ‘ABSOLUTELY OUT OF CONTROL’ 

‘Howard Zucker’s reckless, cruel, and inhumane decision-making during the pandemic caused the death of thousands of New Yorkers in nursing homes. Zucker should be in a courtroom answering for his actions, not employed by the CDC where he can cause more harm,’ Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital.

‘President Biden should give an ounce of justice to New York families and protect all Americans and fire him immediately,’ he said.

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., accused Zucker of having ‘recklessly lied’ to New Yorkers during the pandemic and hit out at Cuomo as well for profiting off of the pandemic through his memoir.

‘He partook in one of the most shameful coverups in American history, willfully misleading Congress and the state legislature about the true number of deaths that resulted from that disastrous policy — all in an effort to protect disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo and his blood money book deal,’ Lawler told Fox News Digital.

‘Joe Biden must immediately fire Howard Zucker and explain how he was even hired in the first place,’ Lawler said.

In 2020, as the pandemic ravaged New York, the state Health Department under Zucker implemented a policy that resulted in nursing home patients being returned to their residences after being hospitalized with COVID-19. Critics of the Democratic administration claimed it fueled the surge in the state’s virus cases, something Cuomo officials denied.

A subsequent report by New York Attorney General Letitia James found that his administration undercounted the number of COVID-related nursing home deaths by thousands.

Fox News Digital reached out to the CDC for comment but did not immediately hear back.

North Dakota regulators denied a siting permit Friday for a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would cross five states.

The decision complicates an already complex process for Summit Carbon Solutions, which is seeking similar authorization in the other states and is facing opposition from landowners and environmental groups. It wasn’t immediately clear how the permit denial would affect Summit’s carbon dioxide storage plans in North Dakota.

The North Dakota Public Service Commission denied the permit for Summit’s Midwest Carbon Express pipeline, which planned a 320-mile route through North Dakota. Summit proposed the $5.5 billion, 2,000-mile pipeline network to capture carbon dioxide from more than 30 ethanol plants in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, and to store it deep underground in North Dakota.

In a statement, Summit said it ‘respects the decision by the North Dakota Public Service Commission, and we will revisit our proposal and reapply for our permit. We’re committed to understanding and incorporating the considerations outlined in the decision. We are confident that our project supports state policies designed to boost key economic sectors: agriculture, ethanol, and energy.’

The project raised landowner concerns of eminent domain, or the taking of private land for the pipeline, and potential dangers of a pipeline break.

The company has ‘legal options’ it can take, commission spokesperson Stacy Eberl said. The regulators do not have jurisdiction over injection sites, she said. Summit proposed an underground injection site for storage of the carbon dioxide in central North Dakota.

The Public Service Commission held public hearings throughout North Dakota earlier this year, during which landowners expressed many concerns, including about eminent domain, safety and requests for reroutes on their property.

‘The Commission felt that Summit has not taken steps to address outstanding legitimate impacts and concerns expressed by landowners or demonstrated why a reroute is not feasible,’ the regulators said in a statement. ‘The Commission also requested additional information on a number of issues that came up during the hearings. Summit either did not adequately address these requests or did not tender a witness to answer the questions.’

The commission’s statement also noted other information Summit hasn’t submitted, including how the company would address 14 areas of potential geological instability noted by the U.S. Geological Survey within the pipeline’s path. Summit also did not submit a revised report to the state’s historical preservation office regarding impacts to cultural resources. The office said Summit’s report didn’t meet its standards.

The regulators’ vote to deny the permit was unanimous.

Commission Chair Randy Christmann told The Associated Press that his vote wasn’t ‘necessarily emblematic of my opinions of carbon sequestration or even of the importation of CO2. This is about this project in this place under these circumstances.’

Among their findings filed Friday, the panel concluded that Summit ‘failed to meet its burden of proof to show the location, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Project will produce minimal adverse effects on the environment and upon the welfare of the citizens of North Dakota.’

The denial of the permit is ‘a win for private property rights in North Dakota, plain and simple,’ said former Bismarck mayor Steve Bakken, who opposed the pipeline.

The proposed Bismarck-area route would have constrained future growth of the city, Bakken said. He also cited safety concerns for not knowing how the company would plan to respond to a pipeline break.

Republican state Sen. Jeff Magrum welcomed the news for his legislative district, which is in the proposed path, as ‘victory in round one,’ but said he expects ‘some type of appeal’ from Summit.

‘We’ll stand guard for what’s coming,’ he told the AP.

Magrum, who opposes the pipeline due to safety and private property concerns, introduced a raft of unsuccessful legislation earlier this year that sought to bolster private property rights and restrict aspects of eminent domain and carbon dioxide pipelines.

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum supports the pipeline. Spokesman Mike Nowatzki told the AP, ‘This is a matter between the PSC and the company, and we’ll continue to monitor it as the process plays out.’

The pipeline has generated similar landowner concerns about eminent domain in other states, including South Dakota, where a group of lawmakers last month began a petition drive for a special legislative session to protect private property rights against Summit.

The Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club are pushing Summit to release financial agreements with ethanol companies in the project, the Des Moines Register reported.

<!–>

–>

Twice-failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams appears to have picked up a new side gig: consulting George Soros’ political efforts.

The Democracy PAC, which Soros solely funds and has used to inject vast amounts into the political arena, wired $30,000 to Sage Works LLC in May for strategic consulting services, according to his committee’s mid-year report. 

Sage Works is an Atlanta-based company owned by Abrams. The former Democratic candidate reported on her financial disclosure form that she also acts as its chief executive officer. Georgia business records show she incorporated the company in September 2002 and has remained its registered agent.

It’s unclear precisely what work she has performed for Soros or his committee. His spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. 

While this is the first reported payment from a Soros committee to Abrams’ firm on the federal level, the financier paid her company years ago from a Georgia committee that he bankrolled as part of his district attorney efforts. 

The Georgia Safety & Justice PAC, which was fully funded by $147,000 from Soros, paid Sage Works $15,000 for strategic consulting services in October 2016, Fox News Digital previously reported. Soros used the PAC to help drive Henry County District Attorney Darius Pattillo into office, and the consulting payments went towards that endeavor.

The past payment occurred in the infancy of Soros’ nationwide targeting of district attorney races. Soros views prosecutors, who decide which crimes to charge and which to let slide, as a considerable component of overhauling the criminal justice system. 

STACEY ABRAMS GETS A NEW JOB AFTER ELECTION LOSS, JOINS ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP TRYING TO ELIMINATE GAS STOVES 

Abrams, meanwhile, has since joined the environmental advocacy group Rewiring America as general counsel following her second defeat last November.

Rewiring America pushes for eliminating gas stoves and tasked Abrams with launching and scaling a ‘national awareness campaign and a network of large and small communities working to help Americans go electric,’ the group previously said. 

Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady contributed to this report.

The full transcript of the House Oversight Committee’s interview with Devon Archer – Hunter Biden’s former best friend and business partner – shows how a key Democrat on that committee, New York Rep. Daniel Goldman, managed to spin out a positive headline from an interview that was otherwise damaging to President Biden. 

After Archer’s closed-door committee interview on Tuesday, Democrats emphasized to media outlets that Archer had described what Hunter Biden was peddling as ‘the illusion of access’ to his father. 

But the transcript shows that the phrase ‘illusion of access’ was first introduced by Goldman. The transcript also shows that Archer first agreed, but then equivocated, on whether the ‘illusion of access’ description was fair. 

‘It’s not about selling access to his father. It’s about selling the illusion of access to his father. Is that fair?’ Goldman questioned. 

‘Is that fair? I mean, yeah, that is – I think that’s – that’s almost fair,’ Archer responded. 

‘Almost fair. Why almost fair?’ Goldman probed.

‘Because there – there is – there are touch points and contact points that I can’t deny that happened, but nothing of material was discussed. But I can’t go on record saying that there was – there was communications,’ Archer replied.

Archer went on to describe that phone calls between Hunter Biden and his father were a sort of ‘signal’ to his business partners about potential influence and access provided by Joe Biden.

‘People send signals and those signals are basically used as currency. And that’s kind of how a lot of D.C. operators and foreign tycoons and businessmen work,’ Archer described in questioning.

Archer said he never witnessed details about business dealings being discussed with Joe Biden on the phone, but that the calls along were ‘signal enough to be powerful.’ 

‘I think that the calls were – that’s what it was. They were calls to talk about the weather, and that was signal enough to be powerful,’ Archer said. 

Archer told investigators that Hunter Biden used his ‘very powerful name’ to ‘add value’ in pitching and securing foreign business ventures.

Archer said Hunter Biden ‘would not be so overt,’ or ‘overtly’ say ‘we’re going to use my dad for this,’ but instead, Archer said that he would use the name to ‘get leverage.’

‘Defensive leverage that the value is there in his work,’ Archer said.

‘The value that Hunter Biden brought to it was having — you know, there was — the theoretical was corporate governance, but obviously, given the brand, that was a large part of the value,’ he continued. ‘I don’t think it was the sole value, but I do think that was a key component of the value.’

Archer told investigators that Hunter put his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell ‘the brand.’

‘You aren’t talking about Dr. Jill or anybody else. You’re talking about Joe Biden. Is that fair to say?’ Archer was asked.

Archer replied: ‘Yeah, that’s fair to say… Obviously, that brought the most value to the brand… It was Hunter Biden and him,’ Archer said. ‘We would discuss having, you know, an understanding of D.C. and that was a differentiating component of us being able to raise capital.’

The transcripts also show that Archer witnessed Hunter Biden putting his father on speakerphone during meetings with business associates. 

Archer also contradicted a key claim from Biden’s orbit about a dinner the now-president attended with a Burisma executive.

Goldman’s office referred back to the transcript when asked by Fox News Digital about its contents. 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Friday set a special election to fill the few remaining months in the term of a southwest Virginia lawmaker who recently resigned to become a judge.

Voters will choose former Republican Del. Jeff Campbell’s successor in the 6th House District on Aug. 29, according to the writ of election signed by Youngkin.

Campbell resigned July 14 effective immediately after being appointed the same day to fill a judicial vacancy. He had represented the 6th District, made up of Carroll and Wythe counties and part of Smyth county, since 2014.

The new delegate chosen by voters will serve out the remainder of Campbell’s term, which ends in January. They may not see much action this year as the Legislature isn’t currently meeting, though lawmakers could be called back to Richmond if a deal to end the long-running budget stalemate is reached.

Every seat in the General Assembly is on the general election ballot in November, and candidates will be running under new maps overhauled during the redistricting process.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Jed Arnold, the GOP nominee running unopposed for the newly created 46th District, which includes some of the localities in the existing 6th District, would also run in the special election. His campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Arnold practiced law with Campbell and was his legislative aide.

The last day for candidates to file is Wednesday at 5 p.m., according to Youngkin’s office.

The new maps generated by the redistricting process have triggered a flurry of legislator retirement announcements. While there are other current legislative vacancies that are expected to go unfilled until the November general election, a new law that took effect July 1 set a deadline by which Youngkin was required to set the special election for Campbell’s seat.

<!–>

–>

The Biden administration proposed a plan to lock up nearly 1.6 million acres of public lands from oil and gas development across western Colorado in response to multiple legal challenges filed by environmental groups.

In a draft supplemental environmental impact statement announced Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued so-called resource management plans for its Grand Junction Field Office and Colorado River Valley field offices which oversee mineral leasing in the area. The proposal would restrict the two offices to leasing just 239,000 acres and 143,000 acres, respectively, for fossil fuel production, a total reduction of about 80%.

‘Public participation is key to the development of Resource Management Plans,’ BLM Upper Colorado River District Manager Greg Larson said in a statement. ‘This new analysis will ensure the BLM’s management of these areas will best serve our multiple use mission for the future.’

BLM’s proposal comes after years of legal challenges spearheaded by several environmental groups that argued the federal government failed to take climate change and greenhouse gas emissions into consideration when formulating its resource management plans, which are issued by field offices to outline how they will manage designated lands for the next 20 years. 

In 2015, the Obama administration finalized the resource management plans for the Grand Junction Field Office and Colorado River Valley field offices, opening up the vast majority of lands to fossil fuel leasing, exploration and production. However, eco groups led by the Colorado-based Wilderness Workshop challenged those resource management plans.

In the case involving the Colorado River Valley plan, a federal court ordered the BLM to reconsider its oil and gas leasing strategy, handing a victory the environmental plaintiffs in 2018. And in 2021, shortly after President Biden took office, a federal judge approved BLM’s voluntary request to rescind its Grand Junction plan over climate concerns.

Both the 2018 court ruling and 2021 voluntary remand forced BLM to start over and file a new draft supplemental environmental impact statement issuing new resource management plans Thursday.

‘I’m very encouraged to see BLM listening closely to local communities who have been asking for more than a decade for the agency to protect wildlands, wildlife, water and our climate,’ Will Roush, the executive director of Wilderness Workshop, said in a statement. 

‘The draft plan considers common sense closures to new oil and gas leasing of additional public lands with documented community and conservation values,’ he continued. ‘This planning area contains some of our state’s most important wildlife habitat, treasured recreation areas, wildlands that should be protected for future generations, critical water resources, famed Colorado scenery and Indigenous cultural sites.’

However, BLM’s proposal was criticized by the Western Energy Alliance, a leading fossil fuel industry trade group, and several Republican lawmakers who argued it represented the administration’s latest attack on domestic energy production.

‘The political leadership at Interior knows this but wants to designate areas as low potential and ineligible for leasing because that’s a way to stop exploration and development on more federal lands,’ Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma told Fox News Digital.

‘Closing areas designated as ‘low potential’ is a way to stop development of the very promising Mancos shale, further suppressing economic growth and job creation on the West Slope,’ Sgamma said.

As part of its justification for the proposal, BLM stated in its draft statement that much of the land blocked off isn’t oil-rich and could be eligible for other uses. 

Under the proposal, the agency would further create new areas of critical environmental concern on more than 100,000 acres of public lands.

‘Today’s proposal from the BLM to remove leasing for oil and gas development in Colorado amidst record high energy prices will continue to exacerbate the economic burden this Administration has placed on hard-working families,’ said Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., who chairs the Congressional Western Caucus. 

‘Time and again, the Biden Administration acts at the will of radical environmental groups who are determined to end resource development on public lands,’ he continued. ‘The Western Caucus strongly opposes this proposal that will only push energy prices to new record highs.’

‘The Biden Administration’s latest plan to bar new oil and gas leasing across roughly 1.6 million acres of Colorado land is an attack on America’s energy security,’ added Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck. ‘Under this proposal nearly 600 oil wells will be slashed over the next 20 years, forcing us to rely on foreign adversaries for our energy supply.’

A Wisconsin judge on Friday ordered the state elections commission to release all records it has related to one of its Republican members and his role as one of 10 people who posed as fake electors in 2020 for former President Donald Trump.

The lawsuit, filed by a union leader represented by the liberal firm Law Forward, sought commission records related to Robert Spindell and comments he made about his role as a fake elector. Spindell is one of three Republican state elections commission members.

Fake electors met in Wisconsin and six other battleground states where Trump was defeated in 2020, attempting to cast ballots for the former president even though he lost. Republicans who participated in Wisconsin said they were trying to preserve Trump’s legal standing in case courts overturned his defeat.

The role of those fake electors, particularly in Wisconsin, was central to the federal indictment against Trump released this week. Trump pleaded not guilty Thursday to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss.

Law Forward filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Elections Commission in 2021 saying the fake electors broke the law. The commission voted unanimously in a closed meeting to reject that complaint, saying the fake electors did not violate any election laws. Spindell did not recuse himself from considering the complaint, even though he voted as one of the fake GOP electors.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice agreed with Trump allies and the fake electors and concluded that Republicans were legitimately trying to preserve his legal standing as courts were deciding if he or Biden won the election.

In May, another state judge ordered the elections commission to reconsider its vote rejecting the complaint. Dane County Circuit Judge Frank Remington ruled that Spindell should not have taken part in the initial discussion and vote because he was targeted in the complaint.

The commission has not yet issued a new decision.

Law Forward alleged in its lawsuit that the commission failed to turn over records requested multiple times under Wisconsin’s open records law. The firm sought documents related to a comment Spindell made during the public portion of a November 2021 commission meeting where he openly discussed his decision not to recuse himself. The commission had been considering the request in closed session only, which made Spindell’s comments unusual.

Specifically, Law Forward asked for communications surrounding material that Spindell appeared to be reading from during the meeting. According to the lawsuit, the elections commission provided a single document that resembled what Spindell read from and said Spindell had no other related records.

The commission argued that the records are in Spindell’s possession, not the commission’s.

‘This argument is nonsensical,’ Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost ruled on Friday. ‘Records held by WEC commissioners are in the custody of WEC and must be provided in response to a records request.’

He gave the commission until Sept. 8 to ‘perform a complete review and produce all records in its possession, whether held by staff or commissioners’ that aren’t otherwise exempt from the open records law.

Commission spokesperson Riley Vetterkind had no comment on the ruling.

Law Forward attorney Scott Thompson praised it.

‘Most of us believe in open and transparent government,’ Thompson said. ‘This is doubly true as we seek to gather more information about those who sought to undermine the will of the people.’

Law Forward brought the case on behalf of Paul Sickel, executive director of the Service Employees International Union’s Wisconsin State Council.

The firm has also filed another lawsuit against the 10 electors and Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis seeking $2.4 million in damages. That case, which is pending, alleges Trump and his allies conspired to overturn his loss in the battleground state.

<!–>

–>