Cindy Archer Loses Again!

By Jeff Simpson

For those that do not remember her, Cindy Archer, was one of Scott Walker's cronies.   Archer was one of the people in Scott Walker's inner circle who was in on the private server that Scott Walker set up in his County Executive office. so the taxpayers of Milwaukee County could pay his campaign staff!  

Archer was also one of the minor minds behind ACT10, but did her best to perpetually play the victim.  However, while she was keeping quiet and covering for her boss - John Doe - Scott Walker, her boss was doing a quid pro quo and kept moving her around, with monster raises, to different Wisconsin Government jobs.  She had to keep moving because she was never qualified for any of them, too long in one place would show her incompetence.

One morning, the police knocked on her door, served a search warrant and seized some of her personal items.   The problem is the main millionaire Eric O'Keefe, is apparently a relative of Doug and Wendy Whiner.  

While O'Keefe was using his money to whine about his treatment all over the country, his gophers like Matt Kittle was repeating the BS.  While the "reporters" who called the John Doe probe a political witch hunt, set back journalism and the truth a millennium, but is the best way to stay employed in the Wisconsin right wing.

Cindy Archer, never one of the brightest bulbs on the tree, actually believed the Kittle propaganda and filed suit against DA John Chisholm and others.    Frivolous lawsuits are like an initiation ritual on the right.

Like frivolous lawsuits do, her suit got tossed out quicker than a doggy bag from Ground Round.

With unlimited cash reserves to take their best shot at punishing anyone who would dare question the WisGop, Archer appealed the dropping of the lawsuit to the 7th Circuit Court,

After a good laugh they also dropped the lawsuit.  However there was one difference here than the lower courts ruling.

   The appeals court on Tuesday agreed with that decision in a ruling that said there was no evidence suggesting Archer's support for Walker played a role in the investigation. The court similarly disagreed with her claims that she was subjected to an illegal search."Unpleasant as the events undoubtedly were, we see nothing objectively unreasonable in what occurred," Wood wrote of the early-morning raid of Archer's home.
Joining Wood in Tuesday's ruling were Judges William Bauer and Ilana Rovner.
Wood was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton; Bauer by Republican President Gerald Ford; and Rovner by Republican President George H.W. Bush.
The judges also sided with a part of Adelman's ruling that allowed the federal court to hang onto documents investigators gathered as part of a probe of Walker's campaign known as John Doe II.
That probe was conducted under the John Doe law that at the time allowed prosecutors to operate in secret and compel targets and witnesses to turn over their records. The state Supreme Court shut down that investigation in 2015, saying nothing illegal had occurred.

Two courts both said we need to keep all of the records of John Doe just in case.   The Bought and Purchased five on the Wisconsin Supreme Court tried to get them to destroy all of the evidence of Scott Walkers criminal wrongdoings.  

Luckily, outside of Wi, there is an actual independent judiciary.

The question is now what is next for CIndy Archer?     WIll she be appointed to another state job, with another raise?   Will she file yet another lawsuit?   Will she retire with her partner off the State Pension she has accrued??    Hopefully she uses her Government supplied healthcare to get her delusions of grandeur taken care of!


PS:  A blast from the past.  It was Cindy Archer that sent an email to Scott Walker and convicted felon Kelly Rindfleisch to fire our very own Capper!   If we could mine irony, we would be the richest state in the Universe.  

Walkergate Prosecutors To Walker: Put Up Or Shut Up

Over the weekend, Scott Walker was once again in Iowa, peddling the false pretense that he is a good Christian, when he went after the Walkergate prosecutors, echoing the fabricated narratives that has been bouncing around the right wing echo chambers. This time, though, the prosecutors aren't just standing by. They issued a challenge to Walker to walk the walk and to go big and go bold by agreeing to release all of the John Doe documents which are currently sealed:

Prosecutors have largely been mum publicly about their probe of Walker's campaign, and Walker recently has largely refrained from discussing the matter.

That changed Saturday after Walker on Friday spoke to WHO-AM in Des Moines about a recent report in the National Review detailing a 2011 police raid on the home of Walker aide Cindy Archer and ones in 2013 on those working for groups supporting him.

"I said even if you're a liberal Democrat, you should look at (the raids) and be frightened to think that if the government can do that against people of one political persuasion, they can do it against anybody, and more often than not we need protection against the government itself," Walker told the radio station.

"As (the National Review) pointed out, there were real questions about the constitutionality of much of what they did, but it was really about people trying to intimidate people..." Walker said.

"They were looking for just about anything. As I pointed out at the time, it was largely a political witch hunt."

The raids were conducted as part of a pair of investigations led by Chisholm, a Democrat. On the second investigation, Chisholm was assisted by district attorneys from both parties and special prosecutor Francis Schmitz, a self-described Republican.

"As to defamatory remarks, I strongly suspect the Iowa criminal code, like Wisconsin's, has provisions for intentionally making false statements intended to harm the reputation of others," Chisholm said in a statement Saturday responding to Walker's comments.

In a separate statement, Schmitz said he was surprised Walker would "speak publicly about specific issues which are now before the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a decision."

"His description of the investigation as a 'political witch hunt' is offensive when he knows that the investigation was authorized by a bipartisan group of judges and is directed by a Republican special prosecutor appointed at the request of a bipartisan group of district attorneys," Schmitz's statement said.

He called Walker's comments inaccurate but didn't detail why.

"I invite the governor to join me in seeking judicial approval to lawfully release information now under seal which would be responsive to the allegations that have been made," his statement said. "Such information, when lawfully released, will show that these recent allegations are patently false."

Chisholm said he agreed with Schmitz's statement.

"Stripped of niceties, Mr. Schmitz is saying the governor is deliberately not telling the truth," Chisholm's statement said.

"The truth is always a defense, so let's get the truth out in a legal manner, not through lies, distortions and misrepresentations."

As one might expect, Walker dodged this challenge and refused to answer questions about releasing the sealed documents.

In other words, Walker has neatly painted himself into a corner.

He can either release the documents and hope his presidential bid can survive. Given the weak-kneed corporate media and America's terribly short attention span, there is a good chance he could survive the release of the documents. But I wouldn't hold my breath for him to do that, because he would have to give up his portrayal of the Tea Party Martyr.

If Walker refuses to allow the release of the documents, it would be nice if a reporter or three practiced a rare act of flagrant journalism and ask him what he is trying to hide - and to persist on this questioning until he finally answers.

Walkergate: How Partisan Is John Doe?

As noted earlier, Scott Walker and his right wing apologists are scared witless about an upcoming decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court about the ongoing John Doe investigations into Walker's illegal collaboration with dark money groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth.

In an effort to stem the bad press that will come with the court's rulings, win or lose, the right wing has gone on the offensive to start the damage control and trying to control the spin. Among these propagandists is David French, who wrote some horrible dreck for the National Review. Besides the over the top melodrama and flights of imagination, French included another utterly false talking point from Team Walker - that the investigation and subsequent criminal convictions are the result of a partisan witch hunt:

t all began innocently enough. In 2009, officials from the office of the Milwaukee County executive contacted the office of the Milwaukee district attorney, headed by John Chisholm, to investigate the disappearance of $11,242.24 from the Milwaukee chapter of the Order of the Purple Heart. The matter was routine, with witnesses willing and able to testify against the principal suspect, a man named Kevin Kavanaugh.

What followed, however, was anything but routine. Chisholm failed to act promptly on the report, and when he did act, he refused to conduct a conventional criminal investigation but instead petitioned, in May 2010, to open a “John Doe” investigation, a proceeding under Wisconsin law that permits Wisconsin officials to conduct extensive investigations while keeping the target’s identity secret (hence the designation “John Doe”).

[...]

At the same time that the public protests were raging, so were private — but important — protests in the Chisholm home and workplace. As a former prosecutor told journalist Stuart Taylor, Chisholm’s wife was a teachers’-union shop steward who was distraught over Act 10’s union reforms. He said Chisholm “felt it was his personal duty” to stop them.

Meanwhile, according to this whistleblower, the district attorney’s offices were festooned with the “blue fist” poster of the labor-union movement, indicating that Chisholm’s employees were very much invested in the political fight.

Unfortunately, French is just repeating misinformation that has been utterly debunked.

The John Doe did not begin with Walker asking District Attorney John Chisholm to look into the theft of money from a veterans fund. The investigation started when Walker started to stonewall the investigation by refusing to release requested emails and documents.

As far as the myth that the investigation and prosecutions were due to unionism, eye witnesses thoroughly discredited those allegations. On top of that, the supposed "whistleblower" whom French refers to was a disgruntled former employee who was suffering from PTSD and alcoholism and who had made death threats against Chisholm and his family.

It later turned out that these accusations were nothing but a campaign gimmick to promote Walker's name and set up the story line they are now using.

As for the mewling that John Doe is partisan, that couldn't be any further from the truth. The fact is that three of the five district attorneys working on the John Doe are Democrats while the other two are Republicans. The special prosecutor that the DAs hired to handle the case is a Republican who openly states he voted for Walker in the recall.

Furthermore, all of the judges that authorized the John Doe investigations are Republican, including James Daley, the Republican candidate who lost his bid for the state supreme court earlier this month. In addition, all of the members of the Government Accountability Board, which oversaw the investigations, are Republicans.

The only way that this could be a partisan witch hunt is if Walker turned out to be a partisan witch, which at this point, wouldn't surprise me in the least.

How Much Collaboration Do You Want?

By Jeff Simpson - Cross Posted from Purple WI! 

The Misaptly named "Citizens for Responsible Government(CRG)" has jumped on the right wing bandwagon of filing frivolous lawsuits and are now suing to be able to collaborate with candidates and other dark money groups.  
Wisconsin's Club For Growth(WICFG) and their "leader" Eric O'Keefe has already filed a frivolous lawsuit, asking for the investigation(he is one of the people being investigated) to end.   Mr. O'Keefe, has the sound of desperation wherever he goes to tell his story:
"We have in Wisconsin a taxpayer-funded domestic spying operation of over three years' duration conducted by the Milwaukee County DA, John Chisholm, and now in concert with Kevin Kennedy at the Government Accountability Board, which is corrupt and so is Kennedy," said Eric O'Keefe, one of the directors of the Wisconsin Club for Growth.
While it does not surprise me that Governor Scott Walker has no problem Mr. O'Keefe slandering a solid public servant like Mr. Chisholm, it does surprise me that the Governor has not distanced himself from groups with such questionable pasts as WICFG & CRG.  
Then CRG stepped, in maybe because they have been left out of all investigations so far, or it could be that when cases get in front of Judge Randa, they are confident in knowing the end result will favor the Republicans.  In that case, why not ask for the moon.   It also does not hurt that Scott Walker's lawyer's wife, works for Judge Randa. 
Either way, Club For Growth, funded by another org that Mr. O'Keefe sits on the board of, wanted to help muddy the waters.  Or as CFG president  Chris Kliesmet puts it:
"My rights to speak out are being violated and they're being violated in a violent way,"
The reality is, that Mr. Kliesmet should be thankful that his right to speak have actually not been taken away in a "violent way".   We have a history of doing that in America and it can be lethal! !   
In case you need a quick reminder of what is going on here, Wisconsin elected & public officials, have a history of breaking election laws.  Then earlier in Governor Scott Walker's term, there was a John Doe investigation that actually netted 6 convictions! 
Anyone who has watched an episode of CSI, or even Starsky and Hutch, realize that in order to get convictions, you need to gather evidence and investigate.  That is what the prosecutors were doing when they confiscated some computers from key figures in the case(some of who were given immunity).  This allowed investigators to get 5 felons and one convict, out of our government, so everyone benefitted.  
Mr. O'Keefe felt the need to speak up on that issue also, and really should not have(emphasis mine):  
He alleged "synchronized paramilitary raids" had been conducted in September 2011 and October 2013 that were aimed at intimidating their targets. Those whose homes had been raided are suffering reactions "similar to rape victims," he said.
Yes Mr. O'Keefe really did compare having your taxpayer supplied laptop confiscated to being raped.   While I am sure every Rape Victims would disagree, the real question here is -  why is our Governor taking counsel from someone who would hold such disgusting beliefs?   
Instead of allegedly coordinating in private,  Mr. Kliesmet comes right out and tells us his plans:
CRG told the court it wants to collaborate with Vilas County Supervisor Kim Simac, Waukesha County Board Supervisor Carl Pettis and state Senate candidate Jason "Red" Arnold. But it has not started working with the candidates because the accountability board and Chisholm have said such collaboration can be illegal, even if a group does not urge people to vote for a particular candidate, the group said in its suit.
Everytime the words, "can" or "may" be illegal are spoken or written, Chuck Chvala's Google alerts go crazy!   Plus, if the Republicans did not think this was illegal, they would not have tried to pass a bill to make it legal. 
It will be interesting to see where the courts take this and where it finally lands as illegal or we completely change the election landscape.
With such hyperbole and the flurry of lawsuits being filed, one would almost think that these people have something to hide.   However, as we wait for the courts to decide how much collaboration is allowed, there is something that can be done that is 100% legal.
That is to work bipartisanly to fix our state's messes. 
I hope these same people who are working so hard to collaborate, make sure and let the republican elected officials know that they expect the same out of them during session.   The people of Wisconsin will be watching next session to make sure that both sides amendments and arguments will be listened to and considered.     No more stunts like Robin Vos telling the Democratic Caucus not to waste any time on amendments because everyone would fail.   
If they find collaboration to be such an important function for success, let's make sure and live by that example.   
Let's swear off the divide and conquer philosophy, that Scott Walker brought to the state in 2010 and start working together.  
Finally, as Mr. O'Keefe complains about his speech being stifled, you should know that his speech is so stifled, that he only has a website, a facebook page, linked in, unlimited access to right wing radio, the ability to talk to any of his friends and neighbors, most right wing politicians will take his call, and he can write a letter to the editor in any paper he wants(among other venues).   
Some people in Wisconsin would love, if their biggest problem was, that their speech was "stifled" to this extent!  

Was Attack On Milwaukee County District Attorney A Campaign Stunt?

A couple of weeks ago, just as the Federal Appellate Court was about to rule on the lawsuit filed by Scott Walker's collaborators - the Wisconsin Club for Growth - a vile hit piece against Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm was published by a right wing propaganda group.

This smear job tried to portray Chisholm as being motivated to enforce the law by the virtue that his wife was a union steward and understandably upset by Act 10.  (Never mind that any rational person who loves Wisconsin was upset about this.)  The author of the tabloid column, Stuart Taylor, also tried to portray the District Attorney's Office as some sort of union hall, although no one could or would support these wild accusations.

At the time, I questioned the legitimacy of the article:

Given the all of the story's inconsistencies, conjectures and fallacies, it's hard to give it any credence. 

It smacks more of an act of political desperation.  Considering that Walker is trailing in just about every poll, is receiving bad economic and/or job creation news on what seems like a daily basis and could very well face the continuation of the Walkergate investigation, it is very believable that Walker and his supporters are scared to death.

This story appears to have all the reliability of Kyle Wood's accusationsagainst US Representative Mark Pocan's partner. 

And just as in the Wood's allegations, it's particularly disgusting that they have to drag Chisholm's wife into it.   Then again, if they had any sort of decency, there wouldn't have even been a need for the investigation in the first place.

Sure enough, a couple of days later, it came out that the source for this smear was a former cop named Michael Lutz who has struggled with life after being shot in the line of duty. He supposedly suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Instead of coping with this in a healthy fashion, Lutz apparently had decided to self-medicate with alcohol and making death threats to Chisholm and his family.

Now it is being reported that the CEO of the propaganda group is using these false accusations as a launching pad to promote Walker's presidential aspirations in order to further his anti-union, pro-plantation economics agenda:

"If he survives re-election, he might well become the number one Republican candidate," Richard Miniter, chief executive officer of American Media Institute, in a Tuesday article on the evangelical Christian website One News Now. The piece is entitled, "A union nightmare: Scott Walker in the White House."

Miniter's group commissioned two stories by Stuart Taylor Jr. that accuse Milwaukee's Democratic district attorney of conducting secret investigations of Walker and his staff because of  Chisholm's wife's pro-union agenda. The source for Taylor's stories was Michael Lutz, a controversial ex-Milwaukee cop who spent less than six months as an unpaid aide in Chisholm's office in 2011.

Miniter told the conservative website that the first-term Republican governor is under attack in the current gubernatorial contest because he took on labor unions in the state. Recent polls suggest Walker is in a statistical dead heat with his opponent, Democratic candidate Mary Burke.

"Unions donate a tremendous amount of money to the Democratic Party," he notes. "So calling for any kind of reform is a threat to the lifeblood of the Democratic Party."

Sadly, Dan Bice, who wrote the article about Miniter, failed to mention a few facts about Miniter, such as that he had been caught blatantly lying about President Barack Obama's record, claiming that several items on Obama's agenda failed when in reality they were successful.  Or that Miniter was such a goof that he was fired from the New York Times.

Another key omission by Bice is that Miniter worked hand in hand with Marc Thiessen, the author of Walker's "autobiography."

Once all the information is presented, it becomes obvious that this whole thing was just another scheme to further their fascist agenda.  They have no more credibility than Brian Sikma, James Wigderson or Charlie Sykes.  And like the local mugs, they have no qualms about ruining the reputations of a good man and his innocent wife, just to advance the agenda of their dark money masters..

I would call on Scott Walker to condemn these people and their underhanded tactics but something tells me that a future investigation will reveal that Walker was actually in on this stunt.

Walkergate: Dark Money's Deep Desperation

By now, the gentle reader has probably seen, or at least heard of, the tale told by Stuart Taylor, Jr. regarding the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker's corruption.  The article appeared on Legal Newsline, a propaganda group sponsored by the right wing cabal known as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Taylor's fallacious smear job alleges that the Walkergate investigation and subsequent charges and convictions stem from Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm's desire to avenge his wife, a school teacher and union steward, for the emotional strife caused by Walker's Act 10.

For a multitude of reasons, these allegations should be treated with a high level of skepticism, if not outright derision.

The presentation of Taylor's story should cause suspicion even before one gets into the meat of it.

In a highly suspect bit of coincidence, Taylor's story just happens to come out on the same day that the appeal of a ruling by Judge Randolph Randa, ordering the investigation to be stopped, was to be heard. It's almost as if the Dark Money groups behind the lawsuit read their tea bag leaves and saw that the appellate judges weren't going to be very favorable to their stunt and wanted to get out in front of the bad news.

Adding further doubt to Taylor's tale is the fact that his only source is an unnamed, faceless former prosecutor that had supposedly worked for Milwaukee County.  It is curious that this unknown source claims that he is no longer working for Chisholm, yet is still afraid to be identified.  It is also curious that this individual was apparently close enough to Chisholm that he had overheard Chisholm's declaration of revenge but yet obscure enough that no one can figure out who he is.

Even if the gentle reader can give the benefit of the doubt to these curiosities, it is quickly discovered that there are other anomalies that are even harder to explain away.

Taylor correctly states that Walker's former Chief of Staff, the late Tom Nardelli, went to Chisholm's office in 2009 to complain of some missing money from a "county charity."  The charity in question was Operation Freedom, a thinly veiled campaign stunt for Walker, which he was told to take out of his office and handled independently.  As we already know, Walker instead put the money in the hands of his long time friend, Tim Russell, who also was stealing from the fund to pay for lavish vacations and Walker's campaign websites.

But this is where Taylor's story really starts to unravel.

Taylor mewls that the investigation should have stopped when they found the thief, but that Chisholm continued to investigate Walker and his staff.  Taylor accurately relates that Nardelli grilled Chisholm about the continuing investigation, alluding that Walker and company were unaware of the continuing investigation until May 2010.

However, that is a false statement.  The reason for the John Doe was because the investigators found other irregularities stemming from the original complaint.  When they tried to look into these irregularities, Walker started to stonewall them.  And that is what prompted the actual Walkergate investigations to start:

The document appears to cast doubt on some of Walker's claims about his role in launching and cooperating with the investigation.

On May 5, 2010, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf filed a petition with court officials asking if his office could initiate a secret investigation into what happened with $11,000 in donations intended for Operation Freedom, an annual event honoring veterans.

By making it a secret John Doe investigation, Landgraf wrote that prosecutors might get better cooperation from Walker's office, which had been "unwilling or unable" to turn over records and information needed in the investigation. He said he would need to subpoena county records and officials.

"It may be the County Executive's Office is reluctant to provide information to investigators due to a fear of political embarrassment," Landgraf wrote, noting that Walker was then running for governor.

John Chisholm

I would remind the gentle reader that the DA's office did a raid of Walker's county executive office on November 1, 2010 - the day before Walker was elected governor.

I would also remind the gentle reader that Taylor accused Chisholm of conducting the John Doe as revenge for Act 10, which wasn't even introduced until 2011 and allowed to enacted until 2012.

Obviously, whether one wants to say that 2009 or 2010 was the starting date of Walkergate, either is well before Act 10.  Unless Taylor and his mystery former prosecutor are willing to say that Chisholm is a Time Lord and hopped in the Milwaukee County TARDIS to travel two years into the future and saw his wife's anguish and figured out that it was from Act 10, their accusations fall flat.

Come to think about it, that addition would be no harder to believe than the rest of their tale.

But wait! There's more.  There is always more.

Taylor and his unknown source claim that the DA's office was reminiscent of a union hall, festooned with blue fist posters:

The culture in the Milwaukee district attorney’s office was stoutly Democratic, the former prosecutor said, and become more so during Gov. Walker’s battle with the unions. Chisholm “had almost like an anti-Walker cabal of people in his office who were just fanatical about union activities and unionizing. And a lot of them went up and protested. They hung those blue fists on their office walls [to show solidarity with union protestors] … At the same time, if you had some opposing viewpoints that you wished to express, it was absolutely not allowed.”

Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looked into this aspect of the story and found that it had no substance:

Also Wednesday, an attorney with Democratic ties who defended clients caught up in the Doe probe said he saw no evidence of political bias or union support in their dealings with Chisholm and his office.

He said he didn't observe signs with a blue fist, a pro-union symbol that Legal Newswire said was displayed by some workers in the office.

Legal Newsline quoted the former Chisholm subordinate as saying that the district attorney "had almost like an anti-Walker cabal of people in his office who...hung those blue fists on their office walls (to show solidarity with union protesters)."

Leib, Chisholm's attorney, did not respond to a question about the signs.

Defense attorney Mike Maistelman said he never observed any union insignia in visits to the DA's offices, though he cautioned that he might have missed them.

Maistelman, a Democrat, represented a former deputy chief of staff to Walker as Milwaukee County executive during the first John Doe probe.

"I never saw any blue fists but I saw a lot of red faces," said Maistelman, referring to his back and forth with prosecutors.

Given the all of the story's inconsistencies, conjectures and fallacies, it's hard to give it any credence.

It smacks more of an act of political desperation.  Considering that Walker is trailing in just about every poll, is receiving bad economic and/or job creation news on what seems like a daily basis and could very well face the continuation of the Walkergate investigation, it is very believable that Walker and his supporters are scared to death.

This story appears to have all the reliability of Kyle Wood's accusations against US Representative Mark Pocan's partner.

And just as in the Wood's allegations, it's particularly disgusting that they have to drag Chisholm's wife into it.   Then again, if they had any sort of decency, there wouldn't have even been a need for the investigation in the first place.

The Rovian Gambit

By Jeff Simpson

We all remember that during one of the many #walkerdoc drops, we saw an email where Scott Walker was kissing up to Karl Rove.  

We know through the eight years of Karl Rove, being on the center stage as one of the power structure of the Bush administration, would pull out any and all stops to win! 

When The Bush team was trying to sell us that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction,  Ambassador Joe Wilson, who was sent on a mission to see if they actually did have WMD's(they didn't), came out publicly telling America that Bush was lying.    Instead of making their case against Ambassador Wilson, Karl Rove engineered an attack against Wilson's wife - Valerie Plame.  Plame was an undercover CIA agent at the time, but that did not stop Rove and crew from attacking her. 

Fast forward to Wisconsin 2014, Scott Walker is dropping in the polls like the temperature in November.  The Scott Walker for Governor campaign did a statewide survey of women head of households, on Monday night.

They obviously did not like the results, because the next day, in a classic example of tone deaf, they used an anonymous source, quoting an anonymous source attacking DA John Chisholm's wife. 

Anything to win. 

Clearly Rovian, blatantly cowardly yet right in the right wing extremists(like Charely Sykes) wheelhouse of low down. dirty, disgusting tactics.  

Do not believe it, do not listen to it, do not click on their disgusting links.   Understand its pure desperation and anyone in the "media" trying to push this story is not a serious person.  

John Doe Deux Is Very Partisan

 

By Jeff Simpson

This week, many facts have come to light over the latest John Doe and we see that many people's concerns of the latest John Doe probe being a partisan Witch Hunt.  Unfortunately, we are finding out those concerns are being justified.   The problem though, is that the partisans involved in this are almost exclusively in the Scott Walker camp.  

First let's let Bruce Murphy give us some background:

Over and over, supporters of Gov. Scott Walker have contended that the second John Doe probe is just a partisan “witch hunt.” But newly released court documents, made public with the consent of all parties to the investigation, provide information showing this is a bipartisan effort. They also offer a fascinating look at the role of Attorney General J.B Van Hollen and how he delayed the investigation, which apparently centers on alleged coordination between third party conservative funding groups and Walker’s gubernatorial campaign during the 2012 recall election.

Conservative attack dogs like talk radio’s Charlie Sykes have hammered the idea that this is a partisan investigation led by Democratic Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. But the court documents show that four other district attorneys are co-investigators in this effort: Jane Kohlwey of Columbia County, a Republican; Kurt Klomberg of Dodge County, a Republican; Larry Nelson of Iowa County, a Democrat; and Ismael Ozanne of Dane County, a Democrat.

Ok so what we have are some "Democrats" and some "republicans" working together to investigate a complicated case.  On the outside you have righty's like Charlie Sykes whining like hungry babies trying to "work the refs".   

As we always say, "but wait there's more".   Amongst the right's very loud sniveling, some puzzle pieces have started to come into focus.   For instance, it was revealed to us that it was actually the GAB that asked for the John Doe probe(and here I thought they were toothless): 

Former judges on the state Government Accountability Board voted unanimously last year to authorize the investigation of fundraising and spending by Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and his allies during the recent recall elections, according to a Tuesday court filing.

Dean Nickel, an investigator hired by the accountability board to assist with the investigation, said in the 10-page filing that he believes the substantial evidence gathered in the probe "coupled with the GAB's unanimous approval of the investigation directly refutes plaintiffs' witch-hunt theory."

Nickel's brief is one of a series filed with the federal court on Tuesday in a bid by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and his aides to get a federal appeals court to intervene in the high-profile John Doe probe.

 A source said five members of the accountability board voted in June 2013 for a resolution authorizing the investigation. The sixth member was not in attendance and did not vote, the source said.

 FYI:  The GAB members  ALL have ties to the republican party!  

It was also recently revealed that the special prosecutor in the John Doe Deux probe, actually voted for Scott Walker in the recall election.  

 
The special prosecutor in the ongoing John Doe probe says he has nothing against Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and the conservative groups at the center of the investigation.

In fact, in a new court filing, former federal prosecutor Francis Schmitz opened up about his voting record to try to suggest that the investigation is nothing personal.

"I voted for Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin's 2012 gubernatorial recall election," Schmitz said in a sworn declaration filed with the U.S. District Court on Tuesday.

Can you even imagine the bleating the Mcgyver would be doing or the whimpering Vicki Mckenna would be screeching if Mr. Schmitz had voted for a Democrat?  

Now that Scott Walker can no longer hide behind the "partisan witch hunt" BS, it is time for him to truly answer some questions.   Did he know about the secret router? Was he involved in the racist email chains?   Has he personally supplied any of this underlings with legal defense money? Was it a coincidence that two of the more well known blogs on the right(boots and Sabers and Badger blogger), closed up shop almost simultaneously as the launch of JD2?  

Wisconsinites deserve the truth! 



  

 

Walkergate 2: The Sons Of Doe Ride Again

After the Walkergate investigations ended with the conviction of six of Scott Walkers aides and supporters, may people thought that that was it.

But in October, news broke that there was another John Doe, or to be more accurate, five more John Doe probes, being conducted.  Precious little was known about these newly discovered investigations.  What we did know was that the investigations involved possible illegal collaboration between the Koch Brothers - Bradley Foundation-supported front groups such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity and the political campaigns of at least one of the recalled Republicans.  

Trying to get a grasp of what was going on was greatly hindered by the fact that the possibilities were so vast and the network of these front groups and the politicians were so immense, it was hard to keep it all straight.  Another issue was that the credibility of the sources of information was dubious at best.  Unlike Walkergate, these investigations started to leak like a sieve.  Sadly, the leaks were all right wing operatives, some who were claiming to be the subjects of the investigations.  To complicate things further, they were leaking to the right wing front groups and propagandists, adding to the doubt.

Fortunately for us, Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express was digging into it already.  Kaiser was the first to point to some of the central people/groups that were part of the investigation.  She pointed out that Eric O'Keefe, who has claimed to be one of the subjects of the investigation, was the head of Wisconsin Club for Growth and has ties to the Sam Adams Alliance, which in turn funds the Franklin Center and by extension, Wisconsin Reporter.

Kaiser also pointed out the enmeshment of R.J. Johnson, who was a consultant to Scott Walker's campaign as well as involved with Wisconsin Club for Growth.  Johnson was one of the people regularly copied into the emails that were flying between Walker's campaign and his county staff.

Kaiser went on to take a closer look at the front groups and their levels of enmeshment with each other. She was also able to confirm that the Koch Brothers were indeed funneling dark money into Wisconsin to influence the  recall elections.

The right wingers threw everything they could at the Does to at least impede, if not completely stop, the investigations. They ran a damage control barrage on squawk radio and through their various propagandists.  They also hired some very expensive attorneys to challenge the dot on every "i" and the cross on every "t."

A little less than a month ago, retired Appeals Court Judge Gregory Peterson ruled against the Does.  In his ruling, Peterson found that the prosecutors did not provide sufficient cause to believe that a crime was committed. As a result, he squashed the subpoenas that had been issued to, y'know, help investigate if a crime was committed.

The right wing was ecstatic.  Charlie Sykes and his White Wisconsin went on for days and days, claiming that this was some sort of victory for Freedom of Speech.  We heard how this was all some sort of political witch hunt aimed at Republicans.  They even went so far as to try to have White Wisconsin and former ALEC operative Brian Fraley act the martyr because - insert dramatic music here - a reporter asked him a question!

I found all of their antics to be particularly irritating, but especially their painting of themselves as martyrs.  These are the same schmucks that would go after the likes of Professor William Cronon for daring to expose the workings of ALEC.  They also went after me for daring to report the truth about Scott Walker.  Yet when they break the law, they think they should somehow be exempt?

Even though their antics were annoying, I held my tongue, knowing that that when it comes to these types of things, there's more.  There's always more.

On Thursday, the "more" came out.

Among the legal flailings of the right wing martyrs was that it was illegal to have a special prosecutor to run a John Doe investigation and that it was illegal for said special prosecutor and John Doe judge to run investigations in several counties at once.

Three appellate court judges ruled against most of these motions, finding that there were actually five different investigations going on even though they shared some commonality.  They also found that the special prosecutor took away the concerns of politics being the motivation for the investigation ans well as helped streamline the operations for everyone involved.

But the court also ordered that some of the court documents should be unsealed.  These documents include:

• The motion to stay the investigation,
• A memo to support their petition to stay the investigation,
• The response of the John Doe judges to the petition, and 
• The response from the special prosecutor to the petition.

Unfortunately, the unsealed documents don't reveal any more specifics about who is being investigated or what they might have supposedly done except for ""suggested criminal campaign finance violations may have been committed by residents of Columbia, Dane, Dodge and Iowa counties."

But some of the unsealed documents do reveal that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm asked Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen a second time to get involved in the investigation.  Van Hollen again denied this request, claiming that his office could not act with impartiality regarding the case.  And this was long before his office got tapped to represent the judges that they right wingers were suing in their efforts to impede justice.

Keep in mind that Van Hollen often was involved with various political campaigns.  It should make one wonder if what he knew of the Son of Doe investigations led to his decision to not seek reelection.  The question would be because he was part of the shenanigans or because he wants the job of someone who was involved with the shenanigans.

There are a couple of other tidbits that are worth keeping in mind.

One is that Van Hollen tried to dump the investigations onto the Government Accountability Board even though they do not have the authority to conduct criminal investigations, much less prosecute anyone.  With all the attacks on the GAB by the Republicans and their efforts to make it a more political entity, I wonder how much these investigations played into their motivation for doing so.  I think it's not unreasonable to question if they were trying to rig the system.  It would, after all, fit perfectly into their modus operandi.

The other thing to keep in mind is that two of the DA's requesting the John Doe proceedings and the use of a special prosecutor are Republicans.  This is in no way a political witch hunt or an attack on anyone's Freedom of Speech as the Republicans and their propagandists are trying to portray it to be.  

Rather, this is a legitimate investigation into possible crimes against our democracy. 

The Ghost Of John Doe Haunts O'Donnell Park

On June 24, 2010, the unthinkable happened.

In a tragic course of events, a concrete facade fell off o O'Donnell Park fell and landed on top of Jared Kellner, a teenager on his way to the opening day of Summerfest.  The slab killed him instantly.  It also severely injured another boy and amputated part of the leg of the second boy's mother.

Since it was opening day, both Mayor Tom Barrett and then County Executive Scott Walker were at the Summerfest grounds when the tragedy occurred.  Barrett went straight to the site when he was informed of the incident and gave free reign to his police chief.  This is a great example of Barrett's compassion and humanity.

Walker, on the other hand, also revealed his true nature. It was considerably more base than Barrett's:

Within hours of this tragic incident, Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway issued a statement remembering the victims and calling for an immediate inspection of all county structures and buildings. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker criticized Holloway’s actions and called them “irresponsible.”

[...]

What makes Walker’s accusations even more egregious is that the first thing Walker did was to check in at the courthouse to see if there was any deferred maintenance. At the press conference that occurred shortly after the tragedy, after appropriately expressing his sympathy for the victims, Walker felt it necessary to keep repeating that there was no deferred maintenance that he was aware of. It was as if his first concern was that he didn’t get blamed for this catastrophe.

Regardless of whether this tragedy was caused by poor design, faulty construction, deferred maintenance or something else, the only responsible action would be to inspect all of the county-owned buildings and structures, especially given their history, before anyone else is injured.

For Walker to argue for anything else would make one wonder if he is really concerned about the public safety or if he is just worried about how this might effect his gubernatorial campaign.

As the days and weeks progressed, Walker continued to try squelch any discussions of the subject by saying "it was too soon," just like gun nuts say every time there is a mass shooting. But there were other questions that remained:

On the day of the incident, Holloway released the above linked document showing the findings of the result of the survey from last year. The very next day, Walker produced the same document, but with an added column showing that the issues raised had been addressed. What is not clear is when those issues had been addressed and why it had not been reported previously. Those two things also need to be looked into.

Another question that needs investigated is whether the fact that Walker has been raiding the capital funds, which had historically gone into building inspections and maintenance and similar projects, and using that money to cover the holes in the operational costs of his budgets, contributed to any possible deferred maintenance issues. Likewise, does the fact that he had cut the number of building inspectors down to one have an impact on all of this is worthy of further consideration.

Sure enough, Supervisor John Weishan found that Walker had taken over $112 million from capital funds and used it to cover the budget gaps left from his tax giveaways.

As a result of the tragedy, the families have filed lawsuits against the county and the contractors.  One of the lawsuits alone is for $20 million.

Stemming from these lawsuits came a request to resurrect and reopen the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker, his county staff and his campaign staff, which was commonly referred to as Walkergate, and had suffered a much too early demise.  The judge whom presided over the John Doe investigation, the Honorable Neal P. Nettesheim, decided to reopen the case just so that the ADA Bruce Landgraf and the O'Donnell Park attorneys could go through them to for any emails prevalent to their case.  Even this isn't going smoothly and there are concerns of a cover up within the cover up.

They release the O'Donnell Park-related emails in four parts.

One is called "gopfran" for Fran McLaughlin who was doing a helluva lot more than editing a press release, as we had been led to believe from the Walkergate investigation.  The bulk of this release has the historic documents regarding O'Donnell Park.

The next packet is called "breakfast" and shows how Walker's campaign manager Keith Gilkes was the one calling the shots and giving orders, including to Walker's county staff.

The other two are rather duplicative, but each does have some choice tidbits which we will look at later.  One is titled "Donnell" and the other is "maintenance."

While all of these don't have much new information contained within them, they do serve to confirm four important points which Team Walker and the Republicans have been denying all along.

The first point is that Walker was much more concerned about the political ramifications from this incident than he was in the well-being of the families, public safety and that he doesn't feel the slightest remorse for his responsibility for the incident.  His sole focus was that it not allow to hurt his campaign.  If that doesn't show Walker truly is a megalomaniacal sociopath, I don't know what would.

Secondly, the emails show that there was not a permeable line between his campaign staff and his county staff.  There was no line at all.  We now see that Walker and county staffers Tim Russell, Cindy Archer, Tom Nardelli, Kelly Rindfleisch and Fran McLaughlin were working as hard on the campaign as hard as the campaign staff.  Maybe even harder.

Thirdly, in the "Donnell" and the "maintenance" emails, we see that everything had to be run past Walker for his approval.  These emails show that Walker was fully aware of and approving of everything from the secret router to the illegal politicking.  Nothing happened without his approval.  There were no over-zealous staffers.  There was no rogue workers acting on their own.  It was all Walker all the time, and he didn't give a damn about the laws he was breaking.  Indeed, there is more.  There is always more.

Fourthly, the emails remove any reasonable doubt that Walker is/was John Doe.

There is still one lingering questions that hasn't been exorcised by these emails.  If anything, the emails actually gave more substance to the question.

Just why did Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm suddenly drop the investigation and court proceedings against Walker and his crew?  It appears to my layman eyes that there is undeniable and overwhelming evidence that Walker and all of his crew was up to no good. Is it that the millions of dollars Walker collected for his legal cooperation fund was enough that his high profile high crime attorneys would be able to muddy the waters enough?  I sure hate to think that Chisholm was somehow compromised.

Maybe it's time for an autopsy on John Doe to find out exactly why he died long before his time, leaving just his ghost to wander parking garages.

Walkergate: Say It Ain't So, Doe!

By now, the gentle reader assuredly has heard that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm as ended the John Doe investigation, more commonly referred to as Walkergate.  In his press release, Chisholm said that there would be no further charges pressed, against Scott Walker or anyone else related to the crimes that were committed.

I, like many on the left, felt disbelief, confusion and incredible frustration.  It was like adding two plus two and coming up with three.  There was obviously a disconnect somewhere with what we know and with the end result, but we couldn't figure out what was missing.

The Walker propagandists and apologists were, as one would have expected, euphoric about the news, with some going over the top.  One example would be the Media Trackkker troll Brian Sikma acting like his smear campaign was single-handedly responsible for the death of John Doe.  Another one would be Koch employee Kevin Binversie, who was hoping that the news would make me suicidal.

But perhaps the most ridiculous statements I've heard were the claims that the end of this investigation was somehow a vindication of Walker.  Now, after nearly three years of the investigation, Walker's people were actually trying to claim for the first time that Walker was innocent, even though all the evidence that we already know of shows that he was being no Eagle Scout.

But first, how the hell did this happen?

Well, only Chisholm knows for sure right now and I'm loathe to try to second guess his reasoning for making the decision to pull the plug on the investigation.

But he does give us a reason of sorts in his press release when he said (emphasis mine):

The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office follows a policy of filing charges only where it believes proof beyond a reasonable doubt supports the allegations in a criminal complaint.  After a review of the John Doe evidence, I am satisfied that all charges that are supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt now have been brought and concluded.  As a consequence, last week my office petitioned for, and Judge Nettesheim as now granted, the closure of the John Doe investigation.

What Chisholm is saying is not that Walker wasn't John Doe or that he is innocent. What he is saying is that he did not feel that they had enough evidence to support the burden of proof in a criminal hearing.

And that is what doesn't make sense.  He has a bloody dumpster full of proof that crimes were committed, more crimes and more criminals than what they have charged for in the first place.  This leaves a lot of questions that Chisholm is going to have to answer.

But for how Walker apparently is able to get off scot-free comes down to three things:

1. Spending half a million dollars on some of the best attorneys in the state and beyond.
2. Buying the silence of witnesses, as evidenced by the fact that he and WISGOP were giving money to Kelly Rindfleisch to earn her silence.
3. Plausible deniability, which is where those high-priced attorneys come in.

What it means is that thanks to the Teapublicans around the country giving him megabucks and allowing him to transfer that lucre to his legal defense fund, he was able to hire on lawyers that specialized in white collar and syndicate type of crimes.  He was also able to use the money that he didn't put into his personal legal defense into the campaigns defense and still have enough to pay for the defense of the people who might have otherwise turned state's witness against him.

Without those witnesses, it would be a safe bet that the attorneys would be able to cast enough doubt on his participation into the illegal campaigning and other crimes committed in order to further his political aspirations that the DA didn't feel confident enough that they could win in court.

So does this mean Walker is innocent after all?

Hardly.

The fact that he had to spend a half a million dollars in his defense belies that point.  

And as we have well established, with all things Walkergate, there is more.  There is always more.  And still even more.  

But as usual, Walker gives himself away in his response to the closure of Walkergate and the fact that he is now to talk about his supposed innocence and release the documents, including the emails that would indeed vindicated him if he was innocent:

The governor disagreed, saying Chisholm didn't need to release more records from the investigation. 

"No, he looked into what we asked him to look through, he took action, he saw that actions were taken and the investigation completed, and now it's time to move forward," Walker said.

Not exactly what you would expect to hear from a person who is innocent. Why would Walker be so vehemently resistant to the release of the records if he has nothing to hide?

Most significant of all is the fact that Walker has never produced a letter from the DA stating that he was not the target of the Walkergate investigation, nor was he granted immunity.

While Chisholm might feel that there was not enough proof beyond a reasonable doubt to take Walker to trial, there is most definitely enough proof beyond a reasonable doubt to think that was not an active participant in the crimes committed.

So what now?

That's anyone's guess.  Political pundits think that Walker has escaped any serious taint that will affect him in his reelection campaign next year or his presidential bid in 2016.  But the experts also though that John Gotti, the Teflon Don, was untouchable after he was acquitted three times in the 1980s.  Gotti ended up dying in prison.

There has been reports of the feds taking over the case.  There has also been reports that Walker also is under another John Doe in Dane County.  But there has been no solid reports on either of these possibilities in months.  I personally would not advise anyone to hinge their hopes on one of these things materializing.

But I would expect that there will be a barrage of Open Record Requests being filed, and perhaps even a civil lawsuit or two being filed.  Especially now that Walker has made it so abundantly clear that there are things in there that he doesn't want to ever see the light of day.

But even if nothing else is done, there are still a lot of questions that Walker would need to answer sooner or later, if not for John Doe, then for John Q. Public.