Scott Walker Needs to Pledge: No Pardon or Commutation for Tim Russell

Loyal friend of Scott Walker's

WISN reports Tim Russell has pleaded "not guilty to embezzlement charges."

"Russell is alleged to have embezzled more than $21,000 in 2010 from a veterans-support organization account to which Walker had entrusted him."

Russell is also accused of siphoning lesser sums from campaign accounts of two Milwaukee County Board candidates, and prosecutors say he also helped set up a shadow Internet system that other Walker aides used to perform campaign work on county time; [now the subject of the John Doe investigation]."
---Russell is reportedly in acute financial distress and knee-deep in Walkergate. So what is his legal strategy?

I'm thinking we should begin to look at Gov. Scott Walker's power to pardon derived from Article V, section 6 of the Wisconsin Constitution.

As Donald Leo Bach writes, "[T]the power to pardon belongs solely to one person - the governor - who can exercise it essentially in any manner the governor sees fit.."

Will Walker pledge not to involve the governor's office after [if] Tim Russell is convicted.

Will Walker let the criminal justice process conclude without fear of justice denied?

Or, will Walker use his pardon power to cover up the crimes of Russell, if Russell decides not to cooperate with John Doe investigators, and reward Russell with a commutation or pardon?

It's not difficult to see Walker justify this in his own mind.

Scott Walker sees every lever and power of government as his for the taking. Why should his pardon power, if it shields Walker, be any different?

Every legislator and citizen should demand Scott Walker make a pledge that he will not pardon or commute the sentences of his criminal cronies.