More Jurists Agree: Only Thing Stopping Walker from Explaining E-mail System Is Scott Walker

Scott Walker

Update II: Scott Walker is likely a prosecutorial target in a federal investigation

Update: Walker transfers another $100,000 from campaign fund to Walker criminal defense fund, bringing total to $160,000.

Scott Walker's refusals to discuss his 2010 campaign for governor run out of the Milwaukee County Executive's office have evolved from 'we're helping' to 'I'm not a target' to 'it's a distraction' to 'the DA told us not to explain how we're helping.'

Walker's refusals are drawing howls but not from the press, just from informed sources whom the press should be asking for comment.

Writes Andy Szal in Wispolitics:

"You certainly have a right to go out and defend your own reputation," former Kenosha Co. DA Bob Jambois told reporters in a conference call organized by the state Democratic Party.

Jambois said he would tell the governor to pursue the same course if he was representing him, but that "it's unlikely to me that the district attorney is advising Scott Walker not to say anything."

Frank Tuerkheimer, an emeritus law professor at the University of Wisconsin and former member of the Watergate prosecution staff, said reports today about the John Doe looking into potential bid rigging in Milwaukee County means the investigation has taken a turn of "an even more serious magnitude."

Szal's piece confirms what we have been told here: Telling someone he is a target would in the words of one jurist, "defeat the purpose" of a John Doe investigation.

Many Wisconsin voters in central and northern Wisconsin have not even heard of the John Doe investigation, or the embezzlement by Walker's top aides of money meant for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, so dedicated is Gannett Newspapers and local broadcast media to burying what would be a scandal of historic proportions were it to occur to a sitting Democratic governor.

For now, Scott Walker largely gets a pass as he campaigns from a headquarters at an undisclosed location.

Bid-rigging

As Tom Barrett and a handful of political writers take up the torch of reformist journalism, this situation may change very soon as reports circulate that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Bice) may run a piece on secret emails sent between Scott Walker and another close aide revealing a bombshell that could directly link Scott Walker to a bid-rigging scheme.

Federal Grand Jury

It's also an open secret among political insiders that a federal grand jury has also been convened to look into Scott Walker's corrupt dealings during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive, but don't look to Charlie Sykes or Milwaukee squawk radio for any confirmation. And the federal grand jury empaneled for 18 months is expected to proceed very slowly.

For now, the question remains will enough people in Wisconsin be fooled again?