In a nifty bit of legal judo, the Walkergate investigators were able to get the courts to order that some of the legal documents be released. Immediately, two unnamed parties filed petitions to stop the release of the documents because REASONS:Also on Wednesday, two unidentified people asked Randa to allow them to intervene in the case so they can make arguments to keep their identities and information about them secret.Well, I believe that if they are tied up in the Walkergate investigations, we can guess that they aren't liberal.
In a joint filing, they noted they had not been charged with any crimes but that sealed documents had been filed in the case that include personal and political information about them. That included their names, addresses, political opinions, political associates, personal and business financial information, personal correspondence and allegations by prosecutors they had violated state laws.
The sealed information may also include their Social Security numbers and medical information, they wrote.
"Unnamed intervenors have not themselves disclosed publicly any of that information voluntarily in connection with this civil action or with a related John Doe investigation. To the contrary, these two unnamed intervenors have taken every reasonable step possible to maintain the privacy of (their) information ... and their rightful anonymity," their attorneys wrote. "Unnamed intervenors seek to preserve their privacy, enjoy their First Amendment freedoms of core political speech and association without unintended and unwarranted public scrutiny, and avoid damage to their families, their reputations, and their businesses."
On Monday, the federal appellate court that is handling the case ordered another batch of documents related to the investigation be released. Again, the same two unnamed intervenors filed more petitions asking that the documents be released because "once the documents are released to the public it will be too late ...."
The obvious question is who are these unnamed intervenors?
Sadly, the answers aren't as obvious.
What can be deduced from their reasoning for wanting to maintain their anonymity is that they are fairly involved with the ongoing investigation into the collaboration between the dark money groups and political groups. It's also pretty safe to assume that the intervenors either have a lot of money or access to a lot of money, presumably through the dark money groups and their funding sources.
It could be any of Walker's wealthy campaign donors or any of the leaders of the scads of front groups like Americans for Prosperity or Club for Growth. But there are some names that would stand out as likely suspects: Scott Walker, R.J. and Valerie Johnson, Deb Jordal, John Connors and Judith Rhodes Engels.
The most obvious guess would be Scott Walker.
But I don't think so.
Everyone knows who Walker is and to whom he is beholden. And he really can't claim anonymity in relation to the investigation, although he assuredly wishes like hell he could. It seems unlikely that Walker is one of the petitioners although it is extremely probable that he helped encourage the petitioners to act.
R.J. Johnson is a more likely possibility. He is up to his neck with the Wisconsin Club for Growth as well as was working for the Walker campaign (which he may or may not have been paid for). Johnson is also involved with a consulting group with his partner, former Fox Valley blogger Deb Jordal.
It would be very conceivable that either one or both Johnson and Jordal could be the petitioners. Given how tied up that Johnson is with both the dark money groups and Walker's campaign, he would be a natural suspect. If exactly how tied up into all of the Walkergate activities Johnson is, it could easily make him expendable to the dark money groups and he would get cut off in a heart beat.
For the same reason, it would not be unfeasible for his partner, Jordal, to step up and defend her partner and thus her seat on the dark money gravy train.
Also worth mentioning is John Connors, who is the director of the same group. And Connors was involved with the under-reported Sportsmen United scandal, in which Scott Sudor had set up a scheme where millions of taxpayer dollars would have been sent to a sham group which would have turned around and used it to help Teapublicans win elections.
Another very likely suspect would be Judith Rhodes Engels, Scott Fitzgerald's main fundraiser and proprietor of the Cross Rhodes consultation agency. Not only is Rhodes Engels involved with a lot of political stunts and fundraisers, least of which is her relationship with Walkergate star Kelly Rindfleisch, she was ratted out by Mike Ellis as someone who could set up a Super PAC to go after political opponents. I'm sure she can't think of millions of
These are just a few of the more likely names of the unnamed intervenors. As I mentioned earlier, the list could go on for quite a while. It could be any of the other highly placed operatives that so far have escaped much public attention. It could be any of the corporate special interests that saw what happened to William E. Gardner, the railroad tycoon who got busted making illegal donations to Walker and don't want to lose their prestige like he did. It could even be some low level stooges that were told to put their names to the petitions in order to protect their corporate masters.
While we don't know who the unnamed intervenors are, we do know that these would be master of the New World Horror are feeling very vulnerable and are running scared. Not only is their personal gravy trains in peril but they really don't want to be tied to the fall of the Weasel Empire.
Then they might have to go get real jobs and they know how crappy the job market they created is.
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