Group files request for Wisconsin governor’s secret emails

Wisconsin’s governor might have to make his secret email account, and the 17,000 emails he sent through it, public.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Tuesday filed a formal request to see the Gov. Tony Evers’ warren.spahn@wisconsin.gov emails.

“WILL filed an open records request for any and all communications in the governor’s office relating to this ‘email’ story, including messages on apps like WhatsApp and Signal. If these requests are not complied with, we will take legal action,” WILL said on social media.

Evers’ office has defended the email account as an “email alias,” that was necessary for “enhanced security.”

Evers’ office also said former Gov. Scott Walker had a second email account as well. Walker’s staff said that email was used to spare Walker from a flood of angry, direct emails.

It’s not clear why Evers’ office created his alternative email account.

WILL”s Rick Esenberg said the basic question about Evers’ other email remains unanswered.

“The problem some are overlooking is that there is no need to use an alias unless you are trying to mask the sender or recipient of the e-mails. No matter who does it, that raises questions of whether an account was used for improper purposes,” Esenberg said on social media. “People asked that question about Walker. And they are now going to ask it about Evers.”

WILL’s Dan Lennington said this is not just about Evers’ warren.spahn email. There are other questions to answer about other off-the-grid communications from Evers’ office as well.

"We just filed an open records request for any and all communications relating to this 'email' story, including messages on messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal. If these requests are not complied with, we will take legal action,” Lennington said in a statement. “There is a massive problem with state officials using Signal. Auto-deletion features violate the records retention law. We're going to sort this out one way or another.”