Updated: Supreme Court candidate Kelly accuses Protasiewicz of slander and lies, Protasiewicz campaign says 'Kelly's entire record is a sham'.

• Author: Schuster, Steve
• Position: Dan Kelly and Janet Protasiewicz

Byline: Steve Schuster, sschuster@dailyreporter.com

By Steve Schuster

sschuster@dailyreporter.com

Wisconsin Supreme Court justice candidate Dan Kelly accused the news media of inconsistencies and his opponent, Janet Protasiewicz, of lying. He further claimed Protasiewicz slandered him and all other criminal defense attorneys while answering questions before a panel of reporters on topics ranging from abortion and election fraud to gerrymandering and collective bargaining.

The Wisconsin Law Journal and The Daily Reporter were in attendance along with journalists from across the state and members of the general public during a joint event that was hosted by the Milwaukee Press Club and Milwaukee Rotary on Tuesday. The panelists included Charles Benson with TMJ4, Corrinne Hess with The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Victor Jacobo with CBS 58 and Telemundo Wisconsin.

Kelly's opponent, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz, declined an invitation to the joint event, citing a scheduling conflict as the reason.

Calling the ads run against him by Protasiewicz "nothing but a dirty path of lies," Kelly encouraged the media and general public to fact check her ads.

"Anyone can look at the public record and see that's not true," Kelly said.

A spokesperson for the Protasiewicz campaign disagreed.

"Dan Kelly's entire record is a sham. He is an extreme, right-wing politician who is desperate to hide his record of corruption on the bench and taking radical positions on abortion, Social Security and more. Dan Kelly and his billionaire allies have been lying about Janet from day one," said the Protasiewicz campaign spokesperson.

Kelly specifically referenced an allegation in Protasiewicz's ads where she claimed Kelly represented clients who were accused of sexual abuse of minors.

"My opponent wants everyone in the state of Wisconsin to believe that I represented them through trial," Kelly said.

"There is also slander (Protasiewicz) says the only reason that (Kelly) represented (clients accused of sexually assaulting minors) is because he likes the type of crime his clients were accused of committing. And that is preposterous and I'd even go so far as to say that is a truly stupid thing to say there is no intelligence behind it, there is no reasoning and there are no facts and yet she says it anyway," Kelly said.

"It's a slander against me, but not just against me, it's a slander against all attorneys who handle criminal defense matters...