Walkergate: "Pop!" Goes The Weasel

The other day, I noted that some unnamed intervenors were trying desperately to stop the release of some more of the Walkergate documents related to the ongoing investigation into illegal campaigning by Scott "The Weasel" Walker and associates.  Much to their dismay, their attempts were in vain and said documents - all 266 pages of them - were released today.

While some of the details are new and most interesting, the overall news is not new at all.

In a nutshell, the documents show that prosecutors have reason to believe that Walker and his campaign were coordinating with dark money groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth to help funnel money into state elections.  While the focus has been on the recall elections in 2011 and 2012, there are indications that this was going on for years before that.

That this was going on for a while should surprise no one. I would remind the gentle reader of the incident shortly after Walker dropped his Act 10 bomb on the state and he received a call from a person Walker thought was David Koch.  Walker showed his attitude towards illegal colluding then:

WALKER: The other thing is more long term and that is after this, um, you know, the coming days and weeks and months ahead, particularly in some of these more swing areas, a lot of these guys are gonna need, they don’t necessarily need ads for them but they ‘re going to need a message out reinforcing why this was a good thing to do for the economy a good thing to do for the state so the extent that message is out over and over again, that’s obviously, that’s obviously a good thing.

The smoking gun - or to be more exact, the smoking Howitzer - is an email from Walker to Karl Rove, the advisor to George W. Bush:

The documents include an excerpt from an email in which Walker tells Karl Rove, former top adviser to President George W. Bush, that Johnson would lead the coordination campaign. Johnson also is Walker's longtime campaign strategist and the chief adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a prominent conservative group.

"Bottom-line: R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin. We are running 9 recall elections and it will be like 9 congressional markets in every market in the state (and Twin Cities)," Walker wrote to Rove on May 4, 2011. Rove runs American Crossroads, which backs Republican congressional and presidential candidates.

Yes, you read that correctly, Walker was foolish enough to put into writing that they were breaking campaign laws.  But then again, with Walker, we always new that there was more. There's always more.

As noted above, some of the allegations is that Walker and his campaign had formed some sort of symbiotic relationship with the dark money groups in which they helped raise funds for each other and redirect those funds through a myriad of channels to help hide the source of all that dark money.  They would then use said dark money to help coordinate their campaigns to help the Teapublican politician or candidate, either by supporting them or attacking their opponents.

This is not unlike the case from California where prosecutors were able to expose and get convictions on money laundering by Koch Brothers-supported front groups.

By far, the best summary of the documents that I've seen thus far comes from Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express.  It is worth a read and I would advise the gentle reader to follow Kaiser for further updates.

There is one thing that Kaiser hadn't gotten to yet is that fact that our old friends at the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) was also tied up in this:

Schmitz said Club for Growth also gave $2.5 million to Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which through its Issues Mobilization Council ran ads supporting Walker and criticizing his recall opponent Tom Barrett. Schmitz also said WMC senior vice president James Buchen participated in conference calls with Walker and others involving the Senate and gubernatorial recall campaigns.

Schmitz alleged that in their court filings Walker’s campaign and other groups “tacitly admitted to violating Wisconsin campaign law.”

WMC was none too happy about getting caught being involved with this little love nest of vipers:

The documents reveal that Walker’s campaign, Wisconsin Club for Growth, Citizens for a Strong America, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and WMC’s Issues Mobilization Council sought to halt the John Doe investigation in state court last fall.

WMC, the state’s largest business lobby, issued a statement declining to comment on the John Doe investigation, but saying it follows campaign finance law.

“WMC wants to be explicitly clear that its grassroots lobbying activities are conducted carefully within both the letter and the spirit of state law,” the statement said. “WMC strongly disputes any allegations of wrongdoing made public today and will vigorously defend itself against any such allegations.”

Oh, puh-leeze!

Finally, there is no telling where this is going to go. The prosecutors appear to be set to push this thing through and see it to an end. However, it appears to my layman eyes that their investigation and any subsequent cases might be too compromised for them to effectively carry on.

However, that does not mean that the bad guys have gotten away with anything.  The gentle reader should keep in mind that the federal government has been helping with this investigation all along - especially since Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has refused to get involved in the entire matter.

The gentle reader should also keep in mind that just two weeks ago, US Attorney General Eric Holder was in Madison to "meet with staff at the U.S. Department of Justice offices."

Maybe it's time to say goodbye to John Doe and say hello to RICO Suave?

Either way, it's most definitely time to load up on the popcorn again!

Walkergate 2: John Doe's Chess Game

Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a column up celebrating the fact that the Teapublicans are trying to bully their way out of the latest developments of the Walkergate investigations.  To put it kindly, it is not his best work.

First off, he compares the right's reaction to the investigation now to when the first Walkergate was going on:

The first time Milwaukee County prosecutors launched a secret criminal investigation of allies of Gov. Scott Walker, those on the right were largely silent.

There were no online attacks, no litigation and few talk-radio rants — until charges were filed. Conservatives took their lead from the governor, who said he would trust the process to clear him.

A new investigation has triggered a wholesale change in tactics.

Last month, No Quarter first reported that prosecutors had launched a second John Doe investigation into the recall elections. The response from the right has been swift and aggressive.

I can speak to personal knowledge that that assertion by Bice is inaccurate. Even before the John Doe investigation - which ended up with convictions of Walker's staff and associates - had even become public knowledge, Walker and his supporters were on the offensive.

 And I was their target.  And there were the usual attacks from Sykes and company, complaining that Walker's staff was being prosecuted and I wasn't, while ignoring the fact that I hadn't committed any criminal acts.

Bice also notes that these money laundering/propaganda groups are bringing out big guns in their effort to disrupt the proceedings.  Again, this is nothing new.  Walker had big guns in to defend him and his campaign during the original investigation.  What would be more interesting - and probably much more telling - would be who is funding these high priced defense attorneys.  I'm sure if I gave the gentle reader three guesses, with the first two not counting, they could still get it correct.

Heck, even the notion of running interference and trying to disrupt the proceeding is nothing new.  During the first round, these faceless entities gave money to the misnamed Citizens for Responsible Government and former Walkersha County District Attorney Paul Bucher so that they could run a seminar on how to attack John Doe proceedings.

Well, as much as the Teapublicans might be cheering on this offensive offense and the heavy hitter attorneys, it's not doing them too much good.  As the attorneys have thrown everything but the kitchen sink in an effort to stop the investigations, they have come up pitifully short:

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals declined late Friday to temporarily halt a secret investigation of campaign fundraising and spending during Wisconsin's recent recall elections.

The court also immediately denied the requests of three unnamed petitioners to have the judge in the case disqualified because of his status as a reserve judge and to prohibit the judge and special prosecutor in the case from using a post office box instead of local court clerks. But the court granted the anonymous plaintiffs' request to file a sealed petition and asked for more information before it decides on several more claims by the people caught up in the probe.

The court's order also made clear for the first time what the unnamed petitioners are arguing. In a half-dozen claims in their sealed filings, the plaintiffs are arguing that the judge and special prosecutor in the case don't have the authority to carry out the secret probe that is ranging across five counties in southern Wisconsin.

The unsigned order was issued by three judges on the District 4 Court of Appeals: Brian Blanchard, Paul Lundsten and JoAnne Kloppenburg.

"Given our outright denial of two of the petitioners' six claims, and the uncertain factual basis for the remaining four claims, we are not persuaded that a stay is warranted," the order reads.

David "Chokehold" Prosser

Jud Lounsbury thinks that this new aggressiveness by the Teapublicans is a precursor to have the whole Son of Doe investigation brought before the Wisconsin Supreme Court.  He accurately points out that the make up of the appellate court made it unlikely they would succeed but it was a formality they had to go through to get it to the higher court, where justices like David Prosser, whom, we just learned, was getting money and other aid from these right wing groups during his election, would make a decision.  We all pretty much know that the four corporate owned justices sitting on the high court already have shown they are not going to give a damn about the law unless it came from ALEC.

Indeed, the Franklin's Center's Wisconsin Reporter - two groups that are probably part of the investigation - is reporting that one of the lawyers, Dean Strang, asked for the case to go directly to the Supreme Court.

On a side note, Lounsbury also has a post showing Walker on the Sean Hannity Show, stating that this is the first time he's hearing or seeing of these investigations or legal proceedings.  This is hilarious given the fact that since the initial reports came out, his campaign as been noted as one of the targets.  I guess cooperating doesn't include knowing what he is cooperating with.

I believe Lounsbury analysis is sound, but incomplete.  If I were the investigators and/or prosecutors for this investigation, I would be counting on and hoping for the Teapublicans to take it to the  Supreme Court.

Consider these facts:

• The special prosecutor, Francis Schmitz, used to be a federal prosecutor.
• FBI agents have been used in the raids on suspects' homes.
• FBI agents have assisted with going through the computers for emails and other documents.
• As reported by Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express, this money laundering crosses state lines.

It's pretty obvious that if the feds aren't actively involved with the investigation that they are monitoring it very closely.  So if the Teabaggers go running to their puppets in the Supreme Court, things could get very interesting.  

On one hand, the puppet justices might throw their benefactors under the bus and actually uphold the law.  They don't want to be tied up with this mess anymore than they already are.  On the other hand, if they go along with their benefactors, the justices could very well get swept up when and if the feds cast their nets and haul them in.

What I get out of the aggressiveness of the Teapublicans legal maneuverings and the heavy spin they are already putting on it is that they are indeed scared to death.  And they are not scared of just the legal consequences for their illegal behaviors, but that as this information comes out, it will not only severely cripple their attempt at buying elections, but that this will also spread like wildfire from state to state where they have been tampering with democracy.

In this game of legal chess, it looks like the good guys have the bad guys in a potential checkmate.