The Wisconsin Campaign for Governor in 2014—A Morality Play

Suppose a Wisconsin officeholder assumes public office and one of his first acts is to arrange a campaign operation inside the very office confines to which he was elected.

Not just a political infrastructure, but an active campaign with electioneering, email system and laptops, monitoring the media, secret communications in violation of Wisconsin's public records law (a primary check against New Jersey-style political corruption), regular meetings of campaign and public office staff inside the office (a courthouse office) and his top aides and the officeholder using the public office to coordinate campaign strategy with carrying out public duties. And with top aides reminding each other to carry out the campaigning covertly.

Any reasonable person would see this as knowingly committing misconduct in office, criminal misconduct in office.

We don't have to suppose; we have Scott Walker. His aides were convicted or took immunity deals.

Walker was elected governor and the evidence in emails and testimony obtained by law enforcement resulted in 15 criminal convictions.

After using the Milwaukee County Executive's office as a campaign office, including but not exclusive to Walker's 2010 run for Wisconsin governor, Walker again betrayed the Wisconsin people as governor and sold out to big-moneyed interests and his own extremist ideology on which he dared not campaign, while making unequivocal promises of 250,000 new jobs.

Scott Walker's Non-denial and Slur on Walker's Older, Secret Intranet System; File This

For future use, file Scott Walker's flack and his statement trying to knock down Bob Kiefert's piece: "I can report that Walker knew about this [illegal] system as far back as 2002. How do I know? I helped Tim Russell set it up."

Walker campaign spokesman Jonathan Wetzel said, in reference to Kiefert's exclusive being picked up by the Wisconsin State Journal, "That a recent blog post by a Democrat Party activist, unsubstantiated in any way whatsoever, is being reported as factual is ridiculous." (DeFour. Wisconsin State Journal)

Ridiculous? Unsubstantiated?

Wow. Sounds like reckless disregard and defamation to me.

How about suing Kiefert and the Green Bay Progressive for libel and defamation, if Scott Walker and Jonathan Wetzel really believe Kiefert's story is ridiculous.

Maybe former Walker aide, Tim Russell, can get in the act as well; he'll be out of prison soon for embezzling from veterans.

Or, how about suing the Wisconsin State Journal's business entities?

Don't look for a comment or a lawsuit from Scott Walker's office though; truth remains a compelling defense against charges of libel.

Stay tuned though for more from Kiefert.

Wisconsin GOP Flacks Say Kill John Doe Law in Effort to Protect Scott Walker

Scott Walker still hides from Wisconsin and has
offers no comment on the secret router and
email system used by Walker and his aides

It is clear that GOP flacks and politicians do not know what Wisconsin's John Doe statute is; they just don't like it when the law is used to find out Republicans who commit crimes against the Wisconsin people.

John Doe probes find the guilty and protect the innocent, a dangerous law enforcement mandate for Republicans in Wisconsin politics today.

Law enforcement acting in the John Doe probe found evidence of GOP criminality beyond a reasonable doubt, so predictably Republican flacks want to kill the John Doe statute (the text of the Wisconsin statute is newly and heavily annotated online).

GOP arguments—such as there are—are unsound and uninformed.

Take today's Wisconsin State Journal's Chris Rickert.

Rickert writes,

But whereas a John Doe can dam up just about any information about who they’re targeting and why, a grand jury offers at least a few opportunities for information to leak out, providing clues into what prosecutors are after. ...

The argument for dumping Doe is simple enough from a health-of-the-democracy perspective. Politicians are adept at misrepresenting their opponents’ positions and spinning news to fit their agendas.

John Doe probes do not "target" anyone.

Their charge under law is to investigate if and by whom crimes have been committed when practical difficulties, like stonewalling by Scott Walker that resulted in the first John Doe, and conflicts of interest make law enforcement investigations impractical, and when innocents could be hurt "from the fallout of frivolous prosecutions" (Berghahn) vis a vis John Doe probes.

"The whole purpose of the John Doe is to inquire whether possible criminal activity occurred," said the retired judge (Neal Nettesheim overseeing the first John Doe). "The John Doe served its purpose. It's to resolve uncertainty and to go where the evidence takes you." (Bice and Umhoefer. MJS)

Secrecy is not mandated, but secrecy protects innocents and the investigation, so secrecy codicils are often employed in John Doe probes.

If and only if a criminal charge is brought or evidence points to a charge being likely does someone like Scott Walker aides or appointees—Tim Russell, Kevin Kavanaugh, Darlene Wink, Kelly Rindfleisch for example—find out he or she is a target.

Russell and Kavanaugh embezzled $10,000s from non-profits meant for veterans and their families, so naturally readers won't hear their names often from Republicans.

John Doe probes are not mini-trials, they are law enforcement investigations that may or may not result in prosecutions.

As for the health-of-the-democracy argument, just because Republicans are revealed to be corrupt and charged and convicted of crimes (with no claims of innocence) does not mean the John Doe statute is suddenly "undemocratic."

If Republicans want to make the argument that Tim Russell, Kevin Kavanaugh, Darlene Wink, Kelly Rindfleisch et al., are innocent then by all means, let's examine their presented evidence and hear their arguments.

No such claims of innocence from the first John Doe probe (even from GOP flacks) have been made because against the evidence such claims are ludicrous.

No, Republicans are going after the statute because they know that Scott Walker is dirty and has been for a long time, and they wish to protect Walker.

Being innocent and yet convicted and in prison does not weigh heavily on most Republicans' minds.

Ask Penny Brummer, an innocent women who sits in prison, or Robert Lee Stinson of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for whom a wrongfully convicted bill is named, killed by Republicans in the state assembly.

Ask Scott Walker who says he cannot grant pardon because there are too many innocents in Wisconsin prisons, a beyond-belief argument that ought to disqualify Walker from public office.

Walker used the Milwaukee County Executive's office as a campaign machine for governor because he felt is he was entitled; Walker violated public records law because he felt he was entitled; and Walker won't talk to the press now because he knows as well that he is neck-deep in uncharged crimes.

Now, I am no attorney but I'm thinking what just about every non-Republican jurist is thinking: Scott Walker should have been charged at a minimum with Misconduct in Public Office (Wisconsin Statute 946.12), but some people like Scott Walker and Republicans are more equal than others.

Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm, who was leading the first John Doe investigation, knows this, and backed away from charging Walker last year because he was afraid of the fall-out.

Scott Walker Has Smoking 50-caliber As Emails Network Administrator Comes Forward

The release of some 27,000 emails from the secret e-mail system used by Scott Walker and his Milwaukee County and campaign staff should put to rest the myth that Scott Walker didn't know of or Scott Walker has not been part of the system on which Walker and his most trusted County and campaign aides communicated.

No smoking gun, say some observers.

Now comes late-breaking news from Matthew DeFour in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Gov. Scott Walker's Milwaukee County executive office was using a secret Internet system as early as 2002, according to a former county administrator who said he helped set up the network.

That's several years earlier than prosecutors disclosed in a complaint against one of Walker's former aides who was convicted of using a secret system to campaign on the taxpayers' dime.

Milwaukee County human resources assistant director Bob Kiefert said he was called into Walker's office in 2002 by then-deputy chief of staff Tim Russell. Kiefert showed Russell how to set up a hard-wired Internet connection using a DSL modem and a telephone line. The network allowed county executive staff to send and receive emails and surf the Web outside the public system set up by the county's Information Management Services Division in 1998.

Kiefert first disclosed the story in a piece in the Green Bay Progressive.

Scott Walker Is Naked to the World—Deceitful and Premeditatedly Criminal

Watching Scotty Blow - Esquire
Photo Illustration by DonkeyHotey
via Flickr/Special to The Politics Blog

Reading the machinations of Scott Walker and his close aides in some 27,000 documents is evidently what it took to kill the fiction Walker has a future as a national leader in even the contemporary Republican Party that has off gone off the rails of rational political discourse.

Scott Walker is every bit the Tea Bagger and corrupt bigot so many Wisconsin folks have long regarded him; not just a poor steward of the economy and environment, but a premeditated disaster operative—mean-spirited, petty, hateful and a crook.

"Communication between Walker's campaign and his office was 'very common,' according to a top investigator," reports Sean Sullivan in the Washington Post, in violation of Wisconsin law.

New pieces in Mother Jones, Blogging Blue, The Nation, Democurmungeon, The Political Environment, The Progressive, Slate, Uppity Wisconsin, Isthmus, Caffeinated Politics, The New York Times, Milwaukee Shepherd-Express and of course Charles P. Pierce at Esquire. A second racist email has also been reported in Buzzfeed.

That repulsive bigotry is common in the culture of Scott Walker intimates is no big surprise; this is a guy whose personal friends and appointees embezzle from military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, but hate has a way of continuing to shock the conscience.

Also, breaking is news that Scott Walker's mining terrorirst friend, Gtac's Bill Williams has been indicted in Spain for willful poisoning and breaking of environmental regulations. And the Bad River Band Asks EPA to Stop All Mining Activity in Penokees, a crucial first step in the mandatory analysis of Native American treaty rights.

From Uppity Wisconsin comes an email authored by Scott Walker on the secret e-mail system directing that this illegal medium be used for an official statement:

Scott Walker himself urging the use of non-official accounts to coordinate a
campaign statement #WalkerDocs

Newly-released e-mails show that the Wisconsin governor may have more of a Chris Christie problem than even Chris Christie. Ruth Conniff and MSNBC have great video on the fall of a sleaze.

Scott Walker Was Center of Secret, Illegal Emails with Racist, Anti-Semitic Slurs

Racist email surfaces written by Scott Walker's former chief-of-staff, Thomas Nardelli to convicted felon and Walker aide, Kelly Reinfliesch - see e-mail at bottom - shows Walker's top staff as resembling nothing so much as a bunch a provincial racists, anti-Semites and hicks.

"Besides being black, Jewish, disabled a fairy with a Mexican boyfriend, a drug addict, HIV positive, bald, orphaned, unemployed, an invalid with one hand and having a bad heart, I live in a crappy neighborhood ... ." Via The Progressive

I read this garbage, and I can say that I read the end of Scott Walker's political career.

Readers can download sordid emails from Scott Walker's inner circle. This is the man who says he represents Wisconsin: Download the files for yourself (WalkerDocs 1 | WalkerDocs 2).

The sifting and winnowing of the Scott Walker-office secret e-mails has just begun and Scott Walker's campaign is already heavily implicated and its true vile colors are there for the world to see.

As a corollary, Scott Walker lied repeatedly about the whole set-up for years.

The e-mail show Walker and his top aides running his gubernatorial campaign out of the Milwaukee County Executive's office where the illegal email system was located.

Story is breaking hard now; see:

• ThinkProgress
• The Progressive
• The Political Environment

From The Progressive:

Washington Post: Scott Walker Eyes 2016, Obscured by E-mail Release from Aide's Criminal Conviction

Update: Starting Today, Scott Walker is Officially in Hot Water (Conniff. The Progressive). Check The Progressive for continual updates.

Rosalind S. Helderman in the Washington Post offers what is common knowledge in Wisconsin political circles.

The court-ordered release of some 26,000 e-mails today from a router and secret e-mail system in the Milwaukee County Executive' office during Scott Walker's tenure (2002-2010) spells trouble and potentially doom for the Wisconsin politician who spent his entire professional life running for political office.

The much-anticipated release this week is accompanied by Walker's recent rallying around Chris Christie, chair of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), and the RGA's six-figure media buy begun this week in support of Walker's reelection bid for governor.

Helderman notes as well John Doe II, an investigation that spread across five counties and is being conducted by law enforcement agencies from District Attorneys from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

The probe is focused on possible 'illegal campaign coordination between (name redacted), a campaign committee, and certain special interest groups,' according to a filing signed by the five district attorneys in the case." (Bice. MJS)

Wisconsin John Doe probes are conducted in secret with a supervising judge to protect the innocent, and preserve the integrity of the investigation, as noted by attorney Marcus J. Berghahn.

The Wisconsin John Doe statute is 968.26.

The line from the Walker administration on John Doe I is that the first "Doe probe (closed) without bringing charges against anyone in Walker's current (governor's) administration." (MJS)

Left unsaid is that the first John Doe probe centered on Walker's tenure as Milwaukee County executive, not the governor's office and that immunity deals have been struck with Cullen Werwie and Fran McLaughlin, two former press secretaries for Governor Walker.

The effort by many of the D.C. commentariet to move Walker into a serious presidential candidate rarely mentions the multiple criminal convictions of his top aides from his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive, Walker's lack of intelligence and Walker's tendency to associate with the likes of his longtime aides and Walker appointees, Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh who were convicted of embezzling some $60,000 from a fund meant for veterans and families of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's almost as if there is a desire to see Walker rise and spectactully fall :) .

Unnamed Parties Ask Wisc Supreme Court to Stop DAs' Probe of Scott Walker/GOP Groups

The Republican Party-aligned special interests pumping $ millions into Wisconsin elections really, really do not want law enforcement to investigate possible criminality on their part.

Mary Spicuzza reports that a "pair of unnamed petitioners filed an original action with the state Supreme Court, meaning they are trying to send the matter directly to the high court instead of starting in lower courts and advancing through appeals."

The petition seeks to stop the John Doe probe looking into $10s of millions of GOP-aligned money that is being investigated after reasonable suspicion was presented to a judge that crimes have been committed.

The probe is being conducted under Wisconsin's John Doe statute, Wisconsin statute 968.26, and represents a threat to the Republican Party's project of injecting $ millions into the political system to consolidate their political power.

This action follows  a complaint in federal court filed by some of the same lawyers who drafted the Supreme Court petition, contending First and Fourteenth Amendment violations by John Doe investigators and prosecutors, including the presiding judge.

The two legal actions precede the release of 1,000s of e-mails next week by former top Scott Walker aide, Kelly Rindfleisch, convicted of a felony while employed in Walker's office.

Republicans fear the e-mail release could torpedo any presidential aspirations Scott Walker may be harboring, and labored to stop the release of the e-mails that may also pose a threat to his reelection as governor in November.

"The records in question include emails from Rindfleisch's personal computer and private email account, affidavits supporting John Doe search warrants, and a transcript of a secret hearing on search warrants issued the day before Walker was elected governor in 2010," notes Dan Bice.

Report: Republican Governors Association to Run Six-Figure Ad Buy Next Week

AP writer Scott Bauer has a piece today running the story first reported in the Washington Post that the "Republican Governors Association will go to bat for one of its all-stars with an early advertisement aimed at bolstering Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign."

This week, Walker, after benefiting from some $15 million in past support from the Republican Governors Association (RGA) of which Christie is now Chair, praised Chris Christie:

"He told me the same thing in private that he did to the press in New Jersey, and I have every reason to believe that the information he said is consistent with the truth, and so I still support him in his role as governor and his role in the RGA," Walker said of Christie at an economic conference. (Politico)

Walker's loyalty to Christie is being amply reciprocated by the coming statewide attack ad that implausibly attributes the national Bush-Cheney recession of 2007-08 to Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle, while claiming credit for the Obama recovery through the efforts of Scott Walker.

Walker's 250,000 new jobs campaign promise continues to be regarded as a cruel joke, and Wisconsin has underperformed the rest of the country and the Midwest in recovering from the Bush-Cheney recession.

Few outside of Scott Walker's circle see Chris Christie as anything but corrupt and a likely future criminal defendant whose fall has been a spectacular political story for months.

Why Walker's presumptive Democratic opponent, Mary Burke, passed on hitting Walker's praising the butt of late night jokes and the paradigm of corruption has left many Wisconsin progressives shaking their heads in silence.

The RGA statewide ad buy will run as 1,000s of e-mails are released from Scott Walker's secret campaign e-mail system that Walker ran from his office of Milwaukee County Executive, a scandal investigated by a John Doe probe that resulted in Walker's top aides and appointees being convicted of criminal felonies.

Walker's former aide, Kelly M. Rindfleisch, tried unsuccessfully to keep the e-mails secret so their release next week is expected to shed more light on Walker's scandal that has been largely buried by Wisconsin's Gannett newspapers and local broadcast media.

Thirteen Scott Walker associates and staffers took immunity deals to keep from being criminally charged in the John Doe probe as provided by Wisconsin's John Doe statute, a move now trumpeted by Walker aides that they say proves Walker ran a clean office.

No mention of the six Walker aides, appointees and associates convicted of crimes typically follows this line from Walker's office.

In fact, it is a distinct possibility that the e-mails will show Scott Walker hip-deep in the illegal campaign run out of his office during his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive.

Burke spokesman Joe Zepecki said the ad buy was no surprise in light of the $ millions spent by special interests on Walker as Wisconsin's middle class shrinks under Walker's tenure.

Burke's campaign is not being run as a grassroots operation, she a Democratic Party placeholder candidate whose primary political qualification is that she is not Scott Walker.

But Scott Walker is so dependent on ad buys by huge out-of-state interests, with massive corruption charges looming heavily that anti-Walker forces hope Walker's political house of cards could tumble in time for the November general election.

National politicos wondering 'what's the matter with Wisconsin,' need only look at the shell of the Democratic Party that has withered under Chair Mike Tate who evidently harbors an aversion to political infrastructure and a communications team.

Grassroots citizen organizations are about the only thing that has kept the radical and corrupt Republican Party at bay, such as it is, replete with $10s of millions from special interests such as the Republican Governors Association.

Look for Dismissal of Club for Growth Complaint Against Law Enforcement Probe into GOP Groups

Scott Walker posed at Operation Freedom
event. Walker's personal aides stole
from this fund meant for veterans. [Note to
Scott Walker: You really want this shot on
a TV spot when you run again for office?]

Update: Wisconsin politico Xoff makes another point for likely dismissal or withdrawal: "So the Club for Growth is now suing in federal court to try to stop a John Doe investigation into whether it and other conservative groups illegally coordinated their activity with Scott Walker's campaign. They could get more than they bargained for if the now-secret Doe material is used in court to defend the Milwaukee DA's office. Interesting that there are five county DAs involved but they are only suing John Chisholm's office. Also interesting that two of the five DAs are Republicans, so it makes the claim that this is some partisan witch hunt a little hard to believe. These are bully tactics by right-wingers who think they have enough money to do whatever they want. Hope they're wrong."

Hey, Eric O'Keefe and Club for Growth, don't get so upset at us because Scott Walker appointed crooks who embezzled from veterans, and then tried to stonewall the investigation into Operation Freedom, money purportedly to be used to honor veterans and their families; not to be promptly embezzled by Scott Walker's longtime aide, Tim Russell.

Reading the complaint filed in federal court against the Wisconsin John Doe judge, prosecutors and investigators one can see that the complaint's specific items amount to little more than whining that the Club for Growth and Republicans are roundly disliked in Wisconsin, so they should be immune from the law enforcement tool known as the John Doe probe.

The heavily redacted complaint reads that District Attorney John Chisholm is a Democrat; Dean Nickel is a Democrat; and so on is a Democrat [no mention is made of the two Republican District Attorneys also conducting the probe) and Scott Walker is intensely unpopular, therefore investigating under Wisconsin's John Doe statute, Wisconsin statute 968.26, is an unconstitutional infringement of the Club for Growth and Eric O'Keefe's First and Fourteenth Amendment freedoms.

The arguments are a joke.

The complaint also asserts that the investigation into Scott Walker's Operation Freedom that found more instances of criminality that led to other criminal convictions and the probe's broadening "exponentially," [the Club for Growth really should look up that word as it does not apply here and federal court is not the forum for hyperbole], even "breathtakingly broad."

That's pretty broad, but it should be noted the John Doe probe gathered evidence and testimony that led to six people being criminally convicted with no claims of innocence on their part.

No argument is made that the John Doe statute has been procedurally implemented in an unsound manner, other the unsupported political assertion that the "Milwaukee County Attorney's [sic] Office Is Biased Against Walker and the Budget Repair Bill (of 2011)."

The complaint is more a long op-ed screed than a complaint in federal court.

Look for the complaint to get tossed even by the like of Federalist Society hack, Rudoph Randa.

And by the way, if evidence and testimony point to possible criminality and lead to new directions as probes do, under the supervision of the presiding judge the law enforcement entity in the John Doe probe can expand the scope of the investigation.

Look at the plain language of the John Doe statute:

968.26  John Doe proceeding.

968.26(1)(1) If a district attorney requests a judge to convene a proceeding to determine whether a crime has been committed in the court's jurisdiction, the judge shall convene a proceeding described under sub. (3) and shall subpoena and examine any witnesses the district attorney identifies. ...

Club for Growth Wants to Kill John Doe Probe in Complaint before Federalist Society Judge

From left to right: Felon Tim Russell, Scott Walker
and Felon Brian Pierick, Four other Walker associates
were convicted in a Wisconsin John Doe probe (2010-13).

Update III: Prediction that the Randa rules against the criminal class of Republicans now holding sway in Wisconsin was confirmed April 8, 2014. (Marley. MJS)

Update II: Today, it was reported that due to Randa's ruling a proposed settlement to rape and molestation victims announced today, "would be by far the smallest sexual abuse settlement in any Catholic Church bankruptcy of this size filed to date." Nice job, Rudolph Randa, you protected sexual predators and screwed their vicitms.

Update: Reader notes Federalist Society Judge Rudolph T. Randa made news by fronting for the Milwaukee child-molesting set in ruling for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in a bankruptcy case in July 2013, insulating $50 million in the process, and failed to disclose his connection to the archdiocese. See also Judge Randa Is Asked by Creditors of Archdiocese to Leave Case (Goodstein. NYT).

When is a law and its implementation by law enforcement unconstitutional?

When it's used to determine if and when crimes have been committed by Republicans, who now-a-days see themselves as above and beyond the reach of Wisconsin statutes, aka the law.

So contends Wisconsin Club for Growth (WCG) and WCG's Eric O'Keefe who evidently do not like Wisconsin's John Doe statute, Wisconsin statute 968.26, and call for its implementation and perhaps its existence to be stuck down as unconstitutional in a complaint filed in federal court this week.

WCG is hoping Senior U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa will agree.

Randa is a judicial rightwinger who as recently as February 21, 2013 was listed as an advisor to the rightest Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Studies.

The Federalist Society advocates a roll back of civil rights, reproductive choice, and civil liberties under the rubric of what they claim is a valid approach of textual originalism to constitutional interpretation. (See Richard Posner for a scathing review of this "gotcha jurisprudence.")

Randa is the judge who sent an innocent Georgia Thompson to prison, a ludicrous affair later overturned in an extraordinary decision in oral arguments before a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Randa is listed along with other activist rightwingers as Federalist Society Members, including the following:  Ken Starr, Theodore Olson, Edwin Meese, Robert Bork, Antonin Scalia, Alex Kozinski, Ann Coulter, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Randy Barnett, Samuel Alito, Troy Eid, Hugo Teufel III, Charles Fried, Richard Allen Epstein, Priscilla Owen, Spencer Abraham, Edith Brown Clement, Rudolph T. Randa, William H. Pryor, Jr., Diane S. Sykes, David M. McIntosh, Maura D. Corrigan, C. Boyden Gray, John Sitilides, David Schizer, Jeff Ballabon, Roger Pilon, Nilda Pedrosa, Charlie Korsmo, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Stephen Bainbridge, Michael I. Krauss, Holly Coors, Don Wagner, Steven G. Calabresi.

The Wisconsin John Doe statute is a law enforcement tool used to determine the existence of criminality when for example conflicts of interests, stonewalling (as in John Doe One that found multiple felonies and misdemeanors in Scott Walker tenure of Milwaukee County Executive), practical difficulties and concern for the good name of innocent citizens mandate launching a John Doe probe after approval by a judge, administered by district attorneys, their agents and a supervising judge.

But the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other Wisconsin rightwingers object again today.

They continuously blasted the first John Doe probe that netted six criminal convictions of Scott Walker appointees, top staff members, and associates. No retractions from the rightwing exist about their smears of John Doe jurists and no claims of innocence exist on record from any of Walker's allies.

Now, WCG and O'Keefe have filed a complaint in federal court contending First and Fourteenth Amendment violations by John Doe investigators and prosecutors, including the presiding judge.

The complaint offers a bizarre history of Scott Walker's tenure and essentially a political editorial that WCG does not like progressives. The complaint also references the federal Citizens United decision as part of its argument that the probe is unconstitutional.

As noted by Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the named "defendants in Monday's suit are Reserve Judge Gregory A. Peterson, who is overseeing the investigation; special prosecutor Francis Schmitz; Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm; Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf; Assistant District Attorney David Robles; and investigator Dean Nickel."

Attorney Marcus J. Berghahn offers an instructive research memo on Wisconsin's John Doe statute in which he writes in part:

 Unlike normal criminal proceedings, which can be initiated if there is probable cause to believe a person has violated the law, John Doe proceedings help law enforcement develop the evidence necessary to establish the very existence of probable cause.

If a district attorney requests a judge to convene a proceeding to determine whether a crime has been committed in the court's jurisdiction, the judge shall convene a proceeding," says Wisconsin's John Doe statute. ...

(T)he proceedings are also designed to protect innocent citizens from the fallout of frivolous prosecutions. [See State ex rel. Reimann v. Cir. Ct., 214 Wis. 2d 605, 621, 571 N.W.2d 385, 390 (1997)]

As the Wisconsin Supreme Court stated in 1889: 'When [the John Doe] statute was first enacted the common-law practice was for the magistrate to issue the warrant on a complaint of mere suspicion, and he was protected in doing so. This was found to be a very unsafe practice. Many arrests were made on groundless suspicion, when the accused were innocent of the crime and there was no testimony whatever against them. This statute was made to protect citizens from arrest and imprisonment on frivolous and groundless suspicion." [State ex rel. Long v. Keyes, 75 Wis. 288, 294-95, 44 N.W. 13, 15 (1889).]

The complaint, if not dismissed, will offer a test on whether Randa wants to go out as a jurist committed to the rule of law or a rightwing hack posing as an impartial judge.

My own reading here is that the complaint is a distraction and stalling tactic meant to buy time for Scott Walker's reelection bid in November.

On February 19, many papers and e-mails concerning the criminal conviction of former Walker aide, Kelly Rindfleisch (aka Multiple Kelly), will become public.

Rindfleisch is another Walker aide convicted in the last John Doe probe, but the resulting political embarrassment of criminality in Walker's office will not be decreased by stalling the current John Doe probe, though the mounds of information coming from Scott Walker's former office will offer a nice introduction to the country of who Scott Walker is.

As for the current John Doe, since when do federal judges get to declare law enforcement investigations unconstitutional just because the subject matter involves possible criminality by Republicans?

I would not bet on a favorable ruling on this complaint for the criminal class of Republicans now holding sway in Wisconsin.

Too much of a stink would result, and the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is not exactly staffed by dummies, Diane Sykes notwithstanding.

Scott Walker, Campaign Used Public Office to Flack for Walker During O’Donnell Park Death

Death of young man in 2010 concerned Scott Walker; Walker was
worried the tragedy would hurt Walker politically. Walker’s campaign
manager, put it immediately after man was killed: "Make sure there is
not a paper any where that details a problem at all." Cover-up and lies.

Lisa Kaiser has the must-read story on Scott Walker corruption and his appalling insensitivity to the death of a young man in 2010.

Walker's cynical and persistent actions in reaction was that the death of 15-year-old Jared Kellner and two others injured on June 24, 2010 at the Milwaukee County O’Donnell Park parking structure could hurt Walker’s political image.

Reports Kaiser:

In the initial phases of the John Doe investigation, the public learned how then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s county aides worked on his gubernatorial campaign while working at their taxpayer-funded jobs. Some of these aides were prosecuted for their illegal behavior.

But the release of hundreds of emails sealed for years under the John Doe’s secrecy order—recently released as part of the litigation involving the O’Donnell Park tragedy—reveals more serious evidence of how Walker’s top campaign advisers were actually calling the shots on county matters to protect Walker and his campaign for governor from political damage from this tragedy.

And make no mistake: Scott Walker was definitely aware that his campaign and county staffers were working together to shape his image as he ran for governor in 2010.

Walker was copied on almost all of the emails ....

Nowhere in any of the emails released is there evidence of Walker or any of his campaign or county staffers expressing sympathy or concern for the Kellner family or the public’s safety. Their only interest seems to be managing Walker’s image and distancing himself from any potential cause of the structure’s failures.

Scott Walker Is in Way over His Head

Governor doesn't mention illegal corporate armed guards; Native American tribe calls for peaceful opposition to huge open-pit Iron mine, and the Republican Party's granted license to dump waste into water

Reckless and infantile is an accurate description of Scott Walker's ill-considered statement on out-of-state billionaire's Christopher Cline's mining operation, Gogebic Taconite LLC.

Even as Native-American leaders and other citizens of northern Wisconsin call for non-violent protests in the face of military-style corporate militias [since removed because they are illegally operating without a license], Walker did not take the occasion Friday to talk to all parties involved in the manner of a responsible public official.

Instead, Walker stuck to his playbook, dismissing the viewpoint of the Wisconsin people whom Walker has repeatedly failed to consult since ramming through unwanted mining legislation passed on a party-line vote after some $15 million was contributed by mining interests to Wisconsin Republicans, with one dissenting vote—Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center).

Can Walker recite the objections to the mining operation held by millions of Wisconsinites to their satisfaction?

Does anyone wish to go fishing after the mining company leaves the waters of northern Wisconsin.

No and No.

Walker refuses to try to talk, to engage, and simply speak to the concerns citizens have for their land and water.

An adult would realize that a heavily armed corporate, militarized force presents a clear and present danger, especially when acting illegally, as has been discovered after, not Walker and law enforcement, but rather Jason Stein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel began asking questions, specifically, don't these guys need a license to walk around with semi-automatic weapons out of a stated purpose to provide 'security.'

Walker postures in the manner of an agent provocateur, attempting to inflame the very situation Walker and has party has created for the benefit of the mining operation for whom he fronts in Wisconsin.

One would think a sitting governor would front for, represent, the citizens of Wisconsin.

Even the GOP-leaning Wisconsin State Journal today runs a sub-headline in its print edition reading, "Governor doesn't discuss armed guards; tribe calls for peaceful opposition."

The local broadcast television 'news' coverage, exemplified by WISC and WKOW, was as usual not recognizable as news. Rather, the seconds resemble a short, free spot for corporate interests.

Compare the statements of Mike Wiggins, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Chairman and Scott Walker. Wiggins' statement is statesmanlike, Walker's is petulant.

I think we understand now why Scott Walker chose as his closest and longest-serving associates the likes of the criminally convicted Tim Russell and Brian Pierick, among several other Walker aides now serving criminal sentences.

At his essence, corrupt work for Cline Resource and Development Group; acting criminally, and associating himself intimately with the likes of Russell, Pierick and Kelly Rindfleisch (felony misconduct in public office); this is who Scott Walker is.

Perhaps behaving likes a statesman and responsible public official is too much ask of Scott Walker who has shown himself repeatedly not up to the job.

From left to right: Tim Russell, Scott Walker and Brian Pierick

As Journal-Sentinel Flacks Away, Scott Walker Goes off Script

Scott Walker meets with his propaganda team

Scott Walker said Kelly Reinfleish, "did what she was expected to do" after Walker hired and promoted her in 2010 in the Milwaukee County Executive's office.

Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel again parrots the GOP line: "Two weeks out from Wisconsin's historic recall election, Gov. Scott Walker appears to have momentum, money and motivated supporters on his side."

Momentum and motivated supporters?

Did Marley, Stein and Bergquist really write this lede?

Their piece's supporting facts and data present far less than a rigorous empirical case supporting their conclusion.

Scott Walker's campaign headquarters

To the contrary, out of the GOP bubble Scott Walker for the first time in Wisconsin history, has to hide his campaign headquarters so unpopular is he with a broad coalition of Wisconsin families.

The MJS piece quotes Mark Graul, GOP operative four times; cites Walker spokeswoman, Ciara Matthews twice; cites Ben Sparks, spokesman for the state Republican Party three times; and omits Walker's war on women.

Its reference to the criminal John Doe probe omits quoting from the criminal complaints that have resulted so far in 15 felonies and three misdemeanors, and in another first a sitting govenor establishing a criminal defense fund; no mention of Walker's top aides stealing from veterans; no mention of Walker usurping local control of communites; power grabs, massive cuts to education and so on.

The rest is false equivalence and tripe not worthy of Marley and Stein's typical writing. Don't know much about Bergquist.

For example:

Walker still faces considerable challenges, from determined opposition from union supporters to a John Doe investigation of his former aides while Milwaukee County executive and the fact that the previous two governors facing recalls in the country both lost. But Democrats face challenges of their own, from Walker's modest lead to the small numbers of undecided voters who could still be persuaded.

Out of the GOP bubble, Cognitive Dissidence offers this today:

Walkergate: He Said, She Said

He, being Scott Walker, discussing Kelly Rindfleish in a radio interview. [Walker] said:

'She did what she was expected to do.'

She, being Kelly Rindfleisch, discussing what she was doing while employed by Walker at Milwaukee County, said (top of page 4 of criminal complaint)

'really, half of what I'm doing is policy for the campaign...its policy stuff but its for use over there...I'm also doing operation freedom'

Isn't it refreshing to hear Scott Walker finally tell the truth?

Walker hired several aides who committed felonies that Walker says are a "distraction," so presumably Walker should get a pass from breaking several criminal state and federal statutes.

Rindfleisch's reference to Operation Freedom is Scott Walker's PR gig pretending to support veterans by appointing cronies who embezzled $10,000s meant for veterans and families, and using "the money to pay for Caribbean and Hawaiian vacations and a political trip to Atlanta to meet with Herman Cain's presidential campaign," among other dishonorable and criminal deeds.

One would think this would be quite a story dominating the campaign. But the Milwuakee Jounral-Sentinel has buried the story along with every GOP media outlet.

Kelly Rindfleisch was brought in from Columbus County, violated the residency requirement for Milwaukee County employment staying at the home of James Villa, former Chief of Staff for the Milwaukee County Executive Office and long-time personal friend of Scott Walker, and informal advisor to the Friends of Scott Walker in 2010. (The Brad Blog)

The MJS doesn't think what looks like conspiracy to secretly break Wisconsin law is sexy enough to cover during the historic recall campaign.

As the apparently weary Walker said, Kelly Rindfleisch "did what she was expected to do."

Enough of that, MJS, tell your readers about Donald Driver's dancing.

Scott Walker Should Make Public Call for Aides to Tell the Truth

It's easy.

Scott Walker's appointees and subordinates accused of everything from child enticement to embezzling from veterans to corrupt use of public office should receive this public statement from Walker:

Tell the full truth to John Doe criminal investigators. The Wisconsin people deserve the truth.
- Scott Walker

Tim Russell, Kelly Rindfleisch, Brian Pierick, Darlene Wink, Kevin Kavanaugh, and Bill Gardner, this means you.

If Scott Walker refuses to issue this simple, decent statement demanding the truth, Tom Barrett should call for a public statement from Walker demanding these people tell the truth.

And we as citizens should ask why Walker would not make such a call for the truth.

Furthermore, Barrett should vow that anyone serving in his administration is under standing orders to fully cooperate with criminal investigators at all times, and anything less than the full truth is unacceptable.

President George W. Bush in 2005 said, "I have instructed every member of my staff to fully cooperate in this investigation" of the leak of the name of a CIA non-official cover (or NOC) agent.

Today's Shot Back at Scott Walker's Aides' Stealing from Veterans

Scott Walker on motorcycle at Operation Freedom event

On Scott Walker's appointees to Operation Freedom—Multiple Kelly Rindfleisch, Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh—as paid employees whose duties were intended to help veterans and their families.

Operation Freedom is not Scott Walker's personal fiefdom to help him get elected.

“It is hard to believe that these two [Russell and Kavanaugh] could do something like this!!! To think we fight, bleed and die so these pukes can financially gain makes me think it’s nut cutting time!!! I have a hard enough time raising funds for our nonprofit without people like these.”

Kindest regards,
Dan Garza
U.S. ARMY Ranger
Founder and CEO
OPERATION: ENDURING GRATITUDE
Executive Director
Liberty Manor for Veterans
Tampa, FL 33688

Veterans Will Not Let Up on Scott Walker's Aides Stealing from Veterans

Ernest A. Canning is a Vietnam veteran and leading legal critic
of Scott Walker's likely criminal involvement in WalkerGate,
and Walker's voter obstruction project. Canning writes at
The Brad Blog.

Scott Walker set up his friends, Multiple Kelly Rindfleisch, Tim Russell and Kevin Kavanaugh as paid employees of non-profits intended to help veterans and their friends.

Scott Walker is toast.

If his aides' stealing from veterans is not enough to catch the Wisconsin electorate’s eyes as the mainstream press tries to hide the story, alternative media like this stays busy and brings these low lives’ actions to the fore. Ernest A. Canning ( Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central) won't let up, and Walker can spin all he wants.

Operation Freedom, advertised by then Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, "thanks our Armed Forces members and veterans for their service." (July 5, 2009).

But in October of 2009, Scott Walker inexplicably ordered the transfer of $19,000 in Operation Freedom funds and financial control over to his then Deputy Chief of Staff, Tim Russell who had no experience running a non-profit. Mr. Russell then allegedly stole thousands of dollars from Operation Freedom and used the money to pay for Caribbean and Hawaiian vacations and a political trip to Atlanta to meet with Herman Cain's presidential campaign. Walker Investigations.

Joe 'Ragman' Tarnovsky, United States Army (28 January 1968 to 22 Oct 1970) e-mails us: "The following award is being presented to Scott Walker, Kevin Kavanaugh and Tim Russell for actions BELOW and INFERIOR AGAINST VETERANS: The Distinguished RAT BASTARD Tail for Thievery and Lack of Accountability."

Let's looks at Kevin Kavanaugh.

Mr. Kavanaugh, Scott Walker's close friend and political appointee to a Veterans Commission, faces several serious felony and misdemeanor charges for embezzling at least $42,232 from the Military Order of the Purple Heart between 2006 and 2009. Mr. Kavanaugh allegedly took the money from donations that included more than $28,000 given by former state Rep. Mark Gundrum, who had donated his legislative salary to the group while serving on active military duty in Iraq. Mr. Kavanaugh is also alleged to have stolen money earmarked for children of Wisconsin military service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The criminal complaint said he and his wife had credit card debt exceeding $40,000. Control of Operation Freedom funds was transferred from the Military Order of the Purple Heart to the Cudwoth Legion Post in February 2009, a chapter of American Legion, a nationally recognized veterans organization. Walker Investigations

Then there's Multiple Kelly Rindfleisch.

According to the criminal complaint against Rindfleisch [check it out, it's utterly damning of Rindfleisch], a GOP operative brought in to secretly and illegally work on Walker's 2010 campaign out the Milwaukee County Executive's office, she worked on Operation Freedom as well (p. 3,4).

Rinfleisch is up to her eyes in illegal activity caught on her communications, and the best she can realistically hope for is a pardon from Scott Walker, which he refuses to rule out.

Reads the complaint, quoting Rindfleisch who communicated on the secret e-mail system run out of Walker's executive office after Rindfleisch assures her partners she is on a secret system, later retrieved by prosecutors. Rindfleisch says:

(Rindfleisch is chatting with another friend)
Friend: Who do you work with?
Rindfelsich: tim russell
Friend: What are your policy areas
Rindfleisch: fran, I don't have specific policy areas, I do projects tim gives me
Friend: what's your title?
Rindfleisch: policy advisor
Friend: that's fancy
Rindfleisch: but I don't need fancy
Friend: I wish you didn't work for government...now I can't talk to you about campaign stuff online Rindfleisch: I'm on my laptop, separate system
Friend: oh...not shit, so it's cool?
Rindfleisch: yah
Friend: are you going to be helping out the campaign too?
Rindfleisch: really, half of what I'm doing is policy for the campaign, its policy stuff but its for use over there
Rindfleisch: I'm also doing Operation Freedom

Congratulations are due Rindflsisch, however, because as an Operation Freedom, Scott Walker appointee, she didn't embezzle from veterans—that's an achievement in the land of Scott Walker who condones unethical and illegal behavior.

Rindflsisch merely is charged with four felonies for misconduct in public office.

So Rindfleisch just admitted in her court filing that these statements are true, and that she only took the Milwaukee County job as a campaign position for the election season. Put this together with then-County Exec Walker being the sole person signing off on Rindfleisch's hiring and promotion, and you see that Scott Walker brought Kelly Rindfleisch on as a campaign worker, but paid her out of the County Executive's Office, in clear violation of state law. And lastly, let's not forget that Rindfleisch admits in the chats that she does projects for Tim Russell and has the separate laptop and computer system. And what did Scott Walker do on the night the Darlene Wink resignation happened, and the Walkergate web was starting to be revealed? He sent Tim Russell (who Rindfleisch was doing projects for on the separate laptop and wireless system, remember) the following message: 'We cannot afford another story like this one. No one can give them any reason to fo another story. That means no latops, no websites no time away during the work day, etc." (Scott Walker) via Jake

Writer Ernest A. Canning ( Vietnam vet (4th Infantry, Central) notes:

To establish proper venue in Milwaukee County, prosecutors allege in the Rindfleisch complaint that, per her personnel file, "Rindfleisch claimed her residence as 133 South 93rd Street, West Allis, Wisconsin," which just happened to be the residence of "James Villa, former Chief of Staff for the Milwaukee County Executive Office and long-time personal friend of Scott Walker. He served as informal advisor to the Friends of Scott Walker in 2010." According to WPR, in his change of venue motion, Gimbel alleges that the case against Rindfleisch should not be heard in Milwaukee County Circuit Court because she did not actually reside in Milwaukee County at the time she was employed in the Milwaukee County Executive Office. However, the official complaint alleges that Villa testified Rindfleisch began living in his home several days per week "to fulfill her residency requirement as a Milwaukee County employee." According to the prosecutors' complaint, that allegation was confirmed by "chats" pulled from Rindfleisch's laptop. County employment as cover for campaign activity WPR reports [emphasis added]:

"The governor has distanced himself from Rindfleisch, although a copy of her personnel file obtained by Wisconsin Public Radio shows Walker was the only person to sign off on her hiring. He was also the only person to approve her promotion two months later."

In last month's article on the continuing "John Doe" investigation, we noted that Rindfleisch's promotion to Walker's Deputy Chief of Staff placed her less than 25 feet from the door of Walker's office as County Executive. That was at the same time, according to the Rindfleisch complaint, that she was routinely using a secret email system set up by Walker's former Deputy Chief of Staff Tim Russell to carry out extensive campaign activities on behalf of Walker's campaign arm which calls itself Friends of Scott Walker. But the complaint also alleges that Rindfleisch began her illegal participation in campaign activities during office hours from the moment she began working in the Milwaukee County Executive Office. The change of venue motion, placed in the context of the allegations contained in the Rindfleish complaint, suggests that extraordinary efforts were made to evade the residency requirement in order to bring a political operative (Rindfleish --- who was also previously tied to the Assembly Republican Caucus Scandal that put several high-ranking state officials in jail several years earlier), into the Milwaukee County Executive Office in order to misuse that position for the political advantage of Walker in his 2010 gubernatorial campaign. The fact that Walker signed off on both her initial hire and her later promotion strongly suggests that Walker was in on the scheme from day-one. That inference is reinforced by the "smoking gun" 5/14/10 emails between Walker and Russell and between Rindfleisch and Russell. That series of emails reveals that Rindfleisch pulled the plug on the secret email system just ten minutes after Walker told Russell, in the wake of public exposure of former Milwaukee County employee Darlene Wink's illegal political missives sent during office hours: "We cannot afford another story like this one…That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the day, etc." All-in-all, these points seem to back up our contention from last week, in the wake of the establishment of his new Legal Defense Fund, that Scott Walker may be now be a target of prosecutors in the long-running "John Doe" investigation which has already led to the indictments of four of his former top deputies.

Further notes Caning:

The fact that Walker signed off on both her initial hire and her later promotion strongly suggests that Walker was in on the scheme from day-one. That inference is reinforced by the "smoking gun" 5/14/10 emails between Walker and Russell and between Rindfleisch and Russell. That series of emails reveals that Rindfleisch pulled the plug on the secret email system just ten minutes after Walker told Russell, in the wake of public exposure of former Milwaukee County employee Darlene Wink's illegal political missives sent during office hours: "We cannot afford another story like this one…That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the day, etc."

Scott Walker is toast. If his aides stealing from veterans is not enough to catch the Wisconsin electorate's eyes as the mainstream press tries to hide the story, alternative media like this stays busy and keeps these low lives' actions to the fore.

Tim Russell may be positioning himself for a plea bargain

Tim Russell - Scott Walker's guy, thief of
veterans' funds, and knower of secrets

Another take on Scott Walker's friend, Tim Russell, and his legal machinations.

By Chris Liebenthal

.... While it is true that Russell was more than just a friend to Walker, being one of Walker's top lieutenants and entrusted with many important aspects of the campaign (albeit almost all illegal), there has been word that Walker and Russell are on the outs. Word is that Russell feels betrayed by Walker, and probably rightfully so. Apparently, Russell has been reaching out to Walker and other Republicans, asking for financial assistance but only getting rebuffed.

Russell could be charged with so much more than just embezzlement. And the District Attorney's Office has enough on him that they could probably put him away for life, or darn near close to it. This has to be weighing heavily on Russell's mind. While I have no way of knowing if prosecutors have been using these facts on Russell, I am sure he's thought about it, time and time again, on his own. ...

It could be very well that Tim Russell is positioning himself for a plea bargain, much akin to the one given to Darlene Wink.

If that were to happen, not only would it blow Walkergate wide open, it would effectively end Walker's political career. Or at least one would hope.