Monday, July 23, 2012

Walkergate: The Legal Defense - Cooperation - Compliance - Charm School Fund

Since its origin, Scott Walker has transferred some $160,000 to his legal defense cooperation fund. And that doesn't count the money that he spent out of pocket before establishing the fund, bringing the total he has spent on his personal defense to over $200,000. And that was before he stopped cooperating.

Nor does that amount cover the money that was paid to Walker's favorite law firm, Michael Best & Friedrich, home of Steve Biskupic, to ensure that Walker's campaign was in "compliance." Walker's tab for compliance issues has reached almost another $200,000 by itself.

And he's not done yet.

Out of that $160,000, he's already spent all but $4,500. I have no doubt that he has his campaign staff calling donors daily, begging them for permission to transfer their donations to his legal defense fund in advance of the sh*tstorm heading his way.

Of the legal defense cooperation money Walker has spent thus far, the greatest part of it, $115,000, went to Sidley Austin LLP, of Chicago. Another $29,200 went to his other high profile attorney, Michael Steinle.

And as a bonus expenditure, Walker gave $1,300 to the Madison law firm of Lind Weininger. I'm sure it's just coincidental that his campaign treasurer is Attorney Kate Lind.

But now there is a new disclosure that has had many people buzzing:
Gov. Scott Walker used almost $10,000 of his controversial legal defense fund to pay a public relations bill, according to a quarterly report filed with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

According to the report, the Scott Walker Trust paid $9,988 for "public relations" on May 15 to Chicago-based APCO Worldwide Inc.

"This doesn't seem to square with what the governor said he needed that money for," said Mike McCabe, executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the election watchdog organization that first reported the filing. "He said over and over, he just needed to pay lawyers to help him with the investigation."

Reid Magney, a spokesman for the Government Accountability Board, said the agency cannot comment on specific expenditures and referred to state law, which says political candidates or officials "investigated for, charged with or convicted of a criminal violation" can create a defense fund "for expenditures supporting or defending the candidate."
What in the world could Walker get from spending $10,000 on a PR firm?

How to spin his involvement in Walkergate? Isn't that what his three lawyers and campaign staff for? Doesn't he already have the KNS (Koch News Syndicate) to get that message out to the public, regardless of how dishonest it might be?

Well, state law says that the fund can be used "for expenditures supporting or defending the candidate or agent."

Maybe they were hired to teach Walker how to properly do the perp walk.

Whatever they were hired to do, I hope that the PR firm wasn't hired to improve his image. When you have the only standing governor to have a legal defense fund, and who has spent more than a third of a million dollars due to an ongoing investigation into all sorts of illegal politicking and campaigning, ranging from misconduct in office to pay for play and bid-rigging, well, there's only so much one can do when you're covered baldspot to toe in dirt.

And as a note to the many people who are growing impatient and want Walker to be indicted now or cleared, let me remind you that the investigation into Illinois' corrupt governor, Rod Blagojevich, took four years and fifteen people were charged before it was said and done.

Sad to say, Illinois had an advantage that Wisconsin lacks. They had a legislature that had the integrity and fortitude to impeach Blago. In stark contrast, our legislators, like Senator Scott Fitzgerald and former Representative Brett Davis, appear to be in cahoots with Walker's criminal behaviors.

4 comments:

  1. It would appear that Hooter gal Ciara Matthews or Cullen Werwie need a bit of hand-holding crisis management "assistance" from APCO: http://www.apcoworldwide.com/content/services/crisis_management.aspx

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  2. Do you think APCO taught "snide" to Ms. Matthews? Or "obfuscation" to Mr. Werwie? Or did Walker's helpers come by these techniques naturally?

    I think if APCO was in charge of Ms. Matthews's education, that the Walker group did not get its money's worth!

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  3. I think APCO arranged for Op-Eds in major newspapers and speaking engagements designed to raise Governor Deadeyes' national profile and his respectability quotient. This is your typical PR fluff work.

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  4. Ya know, if he would go out and get a job that pays some real money like his wife wants him to he wouldn't have to keep mooching off his friends.

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