(The Center Square) – The Biden administration’s probe into President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss progressed far beyond investigating potential fraud and potentially targeted 156 conservatives and conservative organizations.
Whistleblower-sourced records, made public Wednesday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, show that the Arctic Frost probe, pushed by Biden administration special counsel Jack Smith, conducted extensive and legally dubious investigations into Trump-supporting Republicans nationwide.
Smith, the FBI, and the Department of Justice spent thousands of taxpayer dollars to collect personal cellular phone data, conduct dozens of interviews, and issue 197 subpoenas to 34 individuals and 163 businesses.
“Arctic Frost was the vehicle by which FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus. Contrary to what Smith has said publicly, this was clearly a fishing expedition,” Grassley told reporters Wednesday.
“If this had happened to Democrats, they’d be as rightly outraged as we are outraged,” he added. “We’re making these records public in the interest of transparency and so that the American people can draw their own conclusions.”
The records reveal some of the targets on page 60, including multiple state Republican party chairs or former chairs; many state lawmakers and attorneys; individuals believed at the time to be “fake electors;” and conservatives involved in election integrity efforts.
Records of additional individuals and organizations targeted, beginning on page 101, list everyone from Trump campaign staffers to former senior White House advisor Stephen Miller and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino. The list spans multiple states and includes some significant redactions.
The Arctic Frost team also collected phone records of at least nine Republican senators without notifying them, and attempted but failed to collect phone data on others.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called the records “nothing short of a Biden administration enemies list” and deemed it “far worse, orders of magnitude worse” than the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration.
“People need to realize how politicized the Biden administration turned all these agencies,” Johnson said. “It’s outrageous, it should shock every American…we need to get to the bottom of this…so that this doesn’t happen again in America.”
The revelations build on previous documents showing that the Biden administration targeted 92 conservative groups, including the Republican National Committee; Republican Attorneys General Association; the America First Policy Institute; and Turning Point USA, the organization previously headed by political commentator Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot in September.
In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump called the investigators a “disgrace to humanity.”
“These thugs should all be investigated and put in prison,” he said. “Deranged Jack Smith is a criminal!!!”

(The Center Square) – Most voers in Wisconsin haven’t decided who they support to be the state’s next governor, according to a new Marquette Law School poll.
The poll showed that 81% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans have not made their choice in a crowded field to replace Gov. Tony Evers in the Aug. 11, 2026, primary. The general election is Nov. 3, 2026.
Those polled were asked which candidates they knew about with 39% saying they recognize and have an opinion of Rep. Tom Tiffany while 17% recognize Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann and 11% recognize medical service technician Andy Manske.
Of the Democrats Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has the highest recognition at 26%,with Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez at 25%, State Rep. Francesca Hong at 22%, state Sen. Kelda Roys at 17%, former Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. CEO Missy Hughes at 16%; former state Rep. Brett Hulsey at 15% and Milwaukee beer vendor Ryan Strnad at 11%.
The poll asked 846 registered voters the questions between Oct. 15-22.
The poll had similar responses related to supreme court candidates Maria Lazar and Chris Taylor, with 86% saying they don’t have enough information on Lazar and 84% saying the same about Taylor while 69% of those polled said they did not have enough information on what each candidate stands for.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin voters believe that the costs of data centers outweigh the benefits, according to a new Marquette Law School poll.
The poll showed that 55% believe the costs outweigh the benefits while 44% believe the benefits outweigh the costs.
“This is interesting because there is no difference by party across this,” Law School Poll Director Charles Franklin said.
The poll showed 53% of Republicans, 55% of independents and 56% of Democrats opposed data centers. The poll asked 846 registered voters the questions between Oct. 15-22.
“I think one of the things this teaches us is that if an issue is new, and candidates haven’t run campaigns on that issue,” Franklin said.
Data centers have become hot button issues across Wisconsin with a proposal on the table to give $450 million in local property tax breaks toward Vantage’s $8 billion data center through a tax increment district.
Microsoft pulled out of a data center proposal in Caledonia in response to public opposition of the project while Menomonie Mayor Randy Knaack recently rejected a data center proposal.
Along with property tax breaks, qualified data centers in Wisconsin are exempt from sales tax on many construction materials through a program that has cost the state $70 million in forgone sales tax in its first two years.
A poll from Libertas Network earlier this year showed that most U.S. voters oppose having data centers built in their community and even more oppose the data centers if tax incentives are awarded to have them built.
The questions were asked upon suggestion from The Center Square.
A least 10 states are currently losing $100 million or more in taxes from data centers, according to an April report from Good Jobs First.

(The Center Square) – A pair of Republicans have joined Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional race to fill the seat currently held by Tom Tiffany, a Republican running for governor.
Conservative Michael Alfonso, the 25-year-old son-in-law of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, entered the race along with conservative attorney Paul Wassgren.
The candidates join conservative Jessi Ebben in the race.
All three candidates have voiced support for President Donald Trump.
Wassgren called himself a leading advocates for economic development using the federal opportunity zone program and that he intends to prioritize creating economic opportunity, fighting against lawfare, build strong communities and protect Wisconsin’s outdoors.
Growing up in Ashland, his family owned the Mountain Valley Cheese Factory in Bayfield County.
“Growing up in Ashland was the ideal childhood experience – fishing and boating in the summer, jumping in piles of leaves in the fall, and throwing snowballs and skiing in the winter,” Wassgren said in a statement. “Economic opportunities were plentiful, and social problems like homelessness, violent crime, and addiction were scarce,” Paul said. “I’m running for Congress because we need more successful businessmen like Donald Trump and Ron Johnson to shake up the status quo and revitalize our communities.”
Alfonso started in Vilas County and moved to Wausau when he was young before graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Alfonso said he has been inspired by the late Charlie Kirk. He is the grandson of Cuban refugees.
“I was born and raised with the traditional Wisconsin values of faith, community, and hard work – and now I’m ready to give back to the area that gave so much to me,” Alfonso said in a statement. “I’ve watched as the American Dream has continued to slip away from the people who so deserve it,” said Alfonso. “I’ve seen the effects of higher taxes and the increased cost of living on our families and our farms, and the erosion of our constitutional rights.”

(The Center Square) – There’s a new request to let the city of Milwaukee
off the hook for The Hop.
Milwaukee Alderman Scott Spiker wrote a letter to
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to allow the city out of the grant that
paid for the streetcar.
“Mr. Secretary, we need your help. I ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to release the City of Milwaukee from the remainder of the grant obligations it incurred during the development of the Milwaukee streetcar. Moreover, I ask that the city be held harmless in future grant requests,” Spiker wrote. “I realize the somber significance of this request…You did not put [the streetcar] there, but neither did the taxpayers of Milwaukee. They were never asked whether they wished to take on the burden they now bear. They bear it nevertheless. It has become too heavy to endure.”
Milwaukee’s mayor says the city will need $4 million for the streetcar in the next budget.
Spiker said that’s $4 million that cannot go to streets, libraries or the city’s old and aging fire truck fleet.
The problem, according to Milwaukee’s mayor, is that if the city stops running The Hop, Milwaukee could have to repay $48 million in federal grants.
Spiker is not the only one hoping that Duffy will help Milwaukee.
Republican Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield, and Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, also joined with their own request to Duffy.
“If this is granted, the city of Milwaukee could once and for all end this public works ‘boondoggle’; that has plagued the city’s finances for years. This wasteful spending will be required to persist unless the federal government acts decisively,” the two said in a statement. “We believe the decade of sunk costs and the annual hemorrhaging of taxpayer resources will only continue if the federal government does not take direct action.”
Duffy is the former congressman from the Northwoods.

(The Center Square) – Months after an ice storm devastated Northern Michigan, certain public assistance for recovery efforts has been officially denied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
This comes after President Donald Trump already approved Michigan’s request for a major disaster declaration in July. In that approval, 13 counties were allowed to request public assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“With this initial support, we can help communities recover costs associated with cleanup efforts,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said at that time.
Additionally, Trump approved $50 million in aid for the state’s recovery efforts, as previously reported by The Center Square.
While millions were approved, some assistance was denied in Michigan’s initial application and the state subsequently appealed that decision in August. Now, FEMA has also denied its appeal for that additional relief.
The state does not seem concerned that denial will greatly impede recovery efforts.
“While the denial of additional federal aid is disappointing, Michigan has a strong foundation for recovery,” said Capt. Kevin Sweeney, deputy state director of Emergency Management and commander of the Michigan State Police, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division. “Together with our local and state partners, we will continue to provide the support and coordination needed to help communities recover.”
The additional resources the state was seeking included:
Public Assistance Category F funding, which would have supported permanent repairs to damaged utilities like water, power, and communication infrastructure.
Individual Assistance, which would have helped Michigan residents with housing and disaster-related losses.
FEMA is still reviewing Michigan’s application for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which funds long-term projects to reduce future risks from storms. That application was also previously denied.
The March storm has been labeled “historic” by state officials. On March 31, Whitmer declared a state of emergency to respond to the storm’s impact. The declaration initially covered 10 counties, but was then expanded to include 12 counties.
Nearly 100,000 Michiganders were without power, while the storm left hundreds of miles of roads blocked by fallen trees and debris. Even the Mackinaw Bridge, which connects lower Michigan to the upper Northern peninsula, was closed for a time.
This denial for Michigan funding follows on the heels of FEMA also denying taxpayer-funded emergency assistance to Wisconsin for severe storm and flooding recovery. Pounded by storms in August, the state was seeking assistance for $26.5 million in eligible disaster costs. FEMA also denied that claim, stating that “it has been determined that the public assistance program is not warranted.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers pushed back against that decision.
“The federal government should not expect our communities go through this alone, and we are going to fight tooth and nail to ensure they get every possible resource to rebuild and recover,” Evers said. “We are hopeful that the Trump Administration will reconsider this decision, so we can make sure folks have the resources and support they need.”
While under previous presidents, federal storm aid was often seen as a “given,” not so under the Trump Administration. Instead, it has shifted some of the burden back to the states.
“The federal government focuses its support on truly catastrophic disasters—massive hurricanes, devastating earthquakes, or wide-scale attacks on the homeland,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, according to May reporting.

(The Center Square) – An increasing number of Wisconsin voter registration information does not match information from the state’s Department of Transportation.
There are more than 41,000 voter registrations in the state without matching Department of Transportation records such as drivers licenses or identification cards, a number that is nearly double the total from 2020, according to Wisconsin Election Commission data acquired by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
The data is required by the Help America Vote Act but WILL was denied further information from the databases to verify what the specific discrepancies were.
They include 11,174 registrations without a driver’s license number, up from 4,885 in 2020 and 24,733 cases where a name does not fully match WisDOT information, up from 15,260 in 2020.
“We’re not in any way saying that these 40,000 votes were fraudulent votes,” Lucas Vebber, deputy counsel for the WILL, told The Center Square. “We don’t know that. We don’t even know if these 40,000 names were even voters in the election. We know that they’re on the voter registration list and it’s certainly likely, of course, that some of them voted.
“But we don’t know because we don’t know who voted and we don’t know what all the discrepancies are. It could be something innocuous, it could be something more serious. But our point in the letter is just saying this is serious enough that questions need to be answered and we need a little more transparency here from the government.”
WILL sent a follow-up letter to the U.S. Department of Justice on the issue after urging the department earlier this fall to take a deeper look at the issue.
A Waukesha County judge ruled in an unrelated case earlier this month that the WEC must check voter registration information with state identification information to ensure the voter rolls are accurate but a stay was placed on that ruling until the results of a hearing scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Friday.
The WEC data showed that the name and date of birth don’t match on 680 registrations, just the date of birth doesn’t match on 3,110 and there were no WisDOT matches found for 2,069 registrations.
WILL has urged the WEC to explain why it has different processed to vet online voter registration information than hand-written forms.
“What are they doing to ensure the integrity of our voter registration list?” Vebber said. “That’s a real good question for WEC. If they have this information, then they are aware of this discrepancy. What are they doing with it? We’d like to know.”
WEC has said that online registrations are blocked if information does not match such as a voter’s name, date of birth, license number or residency but it simply said that a separate process is used for paper registrations.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin is joining the lawsuit to stop the end of SNAP benefits this weekend.
Gov. Tony Evers said President Trump, however, doesn’t have to wait on the case, that the president could simply give Wisconsin the $115 million needed to cover the state’s food stamp tab in November.
“They can do it. There’s nothing stopping them from doing it. In fact, we’re going to be suing them for not using the funds that they have,” the governor told reporters.
Attorney General Josh Kaul on Monday announced that he is joining 22 other AGs in the lawsuit.
“States have already taken steps to delay the issuance of November benefits, which will significantly harm millions of people who depend on SNAP to put food on the table, including children, seniors, veterans, disabled persons, and other vulnerable individuals struggling to meet their basic food needs,” the AGs wrote in a letter to the president. “The number of people affected, and the length of that delay, will grow each day that issuance files do not go out.”
Kaul and the other attorneys general also asked six questions about using leftover “funds” to cover November’s payments.
Unless Congress reopens the government, or a judge acts by Friday, nearly 700,000 people in Wisconsin won’t get their SNAP benefits on Saturday.
Evers has said in the past that he may look to do something to protect people in Wisconsin from the effects of the federal shutdown, but he never said what. Last week he said that would not include using state money to cover Wisconsin’s food stamp costs.
Evers said food stamps are a federal issue, and said the federal government needs to deal with them.

(The Center Square) – An $8 billion planned Wisconsin data center could receive more than $450 million in local property tax breaks to go along with not having to pay state sales taxes on the construction of Vantage’s new data center in Port Washington.
The project is already the subject of complaints related the placement of transmission lines to power the facility, which is estimated to require as much electricity as the city of Los Angeles once fully operational.
Once completed, the facility is estimated to be worth more than $2.1 billion. But, under the tax increment agreement with Port Washington, the data center would pay property taxes like it is valued at just $121 million for the first 20 years while retaining the extra tax funds.
The agreement does not stipulate what technology will require or what staffing levels will exist in 20 years when the TID agreement ends.
Port Washington’s Common Council is scheduled to vote on the TID creation on Nov. 4 with the Joint Review Board being the final review of the TID on Nov. 18.
Mayor Ted Neitzke told the common council at a recent meeting that the city preferred to have Vantage pay for infrastructure at the site and retain the property tax payments instead of having the city front the money, which the city could not afford.
“That is a risk that they were willing to take that we were not,” Neitzke said.
Port Washington had a combined assessed property value of $1.3 billion in 2024, with the new project having an estimated fully operational assessed value of $2.1 billion.
The state of Wisconsin has a sales tax exemption on construction of qualified data centers good for equipment, construction materials, electricity and more that state leaders are currently considering expanding.
The current exemption has led to $70 million in forgone sales tax in its first two years, far exceeding Department of Revenue estimates.
Many of the usually benefits of a business entering the state – property taxes, sales tax and employment – have already been conceded by the state while questions remain about the impact of energy use at the facilities on consumer electricity prices.
Port Washington is able to create a TID that has a higher value than the rest of its tax base due to a state law passed last year allowing data center TIDs to be created even though they are valued at more than 12% of a municipalities total property tax base.
The city claims that the data center project would not occur without the TID and that the project brings benefits to the municipality including construction jobs over the seven-year construction period, economic activity from those construction workers, employment after the data center is complete, an increased future tax base, increased new construction allowances and both water and sewer infrastructure upgrades.
“While necessary for the project, the costs paid by developer will benefit all utility customers,” the TID documents state.
The agreement does not stipulate how many employees will work at the data center or their pay after the project is complete.
The Center Square was unable to obtain additional comment from Nietzke before publication.

(The Center Square) – Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has resumed scheduling abortion procedures after stopping for a month, according to media reports.
The group stopped providing abortion services Oct. 1, citing Medicaid cuts in a federal funding bill.
“Providing compassionate, high-quality care to our patients has always been our mission – and it always will be,” Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said in a statement. “Our mission remains firm: to stand for patient care, equity, dignity and safety. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will never stop fighting to keep its doors open to as many patients as possible, period.”
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and 22 other state’s attorneys along with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America filed a lawsuit in July to challenge funding provisions in the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
The provisions stopped federal Medicaid funding for services at Planned Parenthood.
“This horrendous policy is not only an attack on Planned Parenthood. It’s also an attack on access to health care,” Kaul said in a statement about the lawsuit. “This reckless policy should be struck down.”

(The Center Square) — Don’t look for Wisconsin lawmakers to do something about the possible end of food stamp benefits in the state.
Food stamp, and other benefits, are set to end nationwide Saturday because of the
federal government shutdown.
Over the weekend, both Wisconsin’s governor and the state Senate president said Congress needs to fix the problem, not the state,
“My heart goes out to people, but this is a federal issue, and I don’t see the state having the resources to do that,” Senate President Mary Felzkowski, R-Tomahawk, said Sunday on UpFront.
Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services said it will cost $114 million each month for the state to cover its food stamp costs.
But Felzkowski is not the only one saying Congress needs to step-up. Gov. Evers said the same thing on UpFront.
“This is something that can be fixed in Washington, D.C., and should be fixed there,” the governor said. “I’m not going to give them advice,” Evers added.
Felzkowski, though, was quick to blame Democrats in D.C.
“I just wish that the Democrats would sign this continuing resolution and vote for it, and let’s move on. They shouldn’t be playing games like this. You don’t hold people hostage over these kinds of issues,” she added.
Nearly 700,000 people in Wisconsin are enrolled in food stamps. Unless
Congress votes to reopen the government by the end of the week, those
people will not see benefits Saturday.

(The Center Square) – A group of Wisconsin lawmakers are working on legislation to enable sports wagering throughout the state, but the law could meet legal opposition since the Wisconsin Constitution states “the legislature may not authorize gambling in any form” outside a few exceptions, including bingo, raffle games, pari-mutual racing and some forms of lottery.
The new legislation would change the state’s legal definition of a bet by stating that bet does not include a sports wager by a person “physically located in this state using a mobile or other electronic device if the server or other device used to conduct such event or sports wager is physically located on a federally recognized American Indian tribe’s Indian lands.”
A bet that fits the state statute definition of “bet” is currently a misdemeanor offense in Wisconsin.
While the proposed Wisconsin hub-and-spoke model has already been approved in Florida, Wisconsin has a different constitution with different definitions that would need to hold up in court if challenged.
Lucas Vebber, deputy counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, has looked into the details of how Wisconsin went from a state that doesn’t allow gambling to one that earns revenue each year through gaming compacts with tribes in the state.
“This is a huge industry, obviously, in Wisconsin,” Vebber told The Center Square. “But the way we got there is just an interesting narrative of kind of this legal back and forth. People kind of forget that sometimes and I just like to point it out and how this all came to be.”
Vebber was clear that he and WILL are not planning a lawsuit on the legislation.
But he detailed the history of legal gaming in the state, from the original ban to amendments in the 1960s and 1980s to allow the exceptions to the law to the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, gaming compacts negotiated in 1991 and 1992 by Gov. Tommy Thompson and then a state constitutional amendment that banned most gaming in 1993.
After a challenge, the compacts were allowed to continue because they were approved before the amendment and they were allowed to be amended themselves in the future, including to allow for sports wagering on tribal lands several years ago, something the new legislation would expand upon.
“The question is does that violate Article 4, Section 24 of the constitution, which is pretty clear that the Legislature doesn’t have any authority enact any bill that authorizes gambling in any form,” Vebber said.
He noted that the opposing viewpoint could be that wagering is already authorized and this legislation is just changing the definition of where that occurs.
“It’s something that I don’t think have ever been contested … certainly not in this context, that I am aware of,” Vebber said.
The cleaner way to avoid legal challenges would be to create a new constitutional amendment to allow for sports wagering. But that would have to pass two different Legislatures and then go to a statewide vote.
The new legislation states “this bill does not authorize gambling on its own; it only is one part in a multi-step process to create the legal framework necessary for Wisconsin to participate in mobile sports wagering under tribal compacts,” it reads. “Gaming compacts between states and tribes need to be federally approved by the U.S. Department of Interior before going into effect.”
That means which sports wagering companies are able to work with the tribes on statewide mobile wagering and what level of shared revenue will come from the expanded sports wagering is still to be determined.
Each of the tribes has a compact currently in place with the state where the state earns a percentage of tribal gaming revenue.
The bill estimates it will bring hundreds of millions of illegal bets into legal sportsbooks in the state, stating the change “generates new revenue through tribal gaming compacts and reduces consumer risk from offshore operators.”
In 2024, the state received more than $66 million in shared revenue payments with nearly $66 million in 2023 and nearly $57 million in 2022.