Republicans ask felon for help in their review of the 2020 election
MADISON – Assembly Republicans are turning to an unusual source as they try to identify voting irregularities — a felon convicted of fraud who has been looking into the 2020 election on his own.
The Assembly Elections Committee plans to give a platform Wednesday to Peter Bernegger, who was convicted of bank fraud and mail fraud in 2009 for deceiving investors in two startup companies. Bernegger was released from federal prison in 2014.
Bernegger used Wisconsin’s open records law last year to gather millions of copies of ballots so he and others could review them. In some cases, Bernegger and his helpers visited election officials in person to make copies of the ballots.
The Assembly Elections Committee listed Bernegger as a “data analyst” in a public notice about his testimony.
Bernegger is the grandson of the founders of Hillshire Farm, the New London sausage business that became a national brand. As of 2016, he did not have a job and as of 2020, he had paid little of the $1.7 million in restitution he owed from his fraud case, according to court documents.
Reached for comment by a reporter on Tuesday, Bernegger said, “No thanks” and hung up.
Wednesday’s committee hearing will give Bernegger his biggest megaphone yet to make his case the 2020 election was flawed. Recounts and court rulings have found Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in Wisconsin by 21,000 votes. A nonpartisan legislative audit and a review by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty found no evidence of significant voter fraud.
Rep. Mark Spreitzer, a Beloit Democrat who sits on the Assembly Elections Committee, said lawmakers shouldn’t be listening to Bernegger.
“Hearing from Peter Bernegger will only further confirm what we have known about the so-called experts that Republicans keep bringing in: We can’t trust them,” Spreitzer said in a statement. “The only expertise Mr. Bernegger has is in being convicted of fraud. He is the last person I would trust to do anything with Wisconsin’s elections.”
Republican Rep. Janel Brandtjen of Menomonee Falls, the chairwoman of the committee, did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday.
Bernegger’s testimony comes as Assembly
Republicans conduct a review of the election in conjunction with former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman. The review is expected to cost taxpayers $676,000.
Bernegger has conferred with Gableman for that review, according to Nate Cain, a West Virginia consultant hired by Gableman. Cain said Bernegger has also worked with Douglas Frank, the chairman of the math and science department at an Ohio school who has worked closely with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow executive who has promoted election conspiracy theories.
Frank has also briefed Gableman. Frank recently testified before the Assembly Elections Committee, where he falsely claimed officials don’t know who voted in the 2020 election. The names of voters are readily available from the state.