As the gentle reader knows, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been the subject of not one, but two, separate John Doe investigations.
The first investigation gave rise to the second investigation into the illegal collaboration between Walker's campaign and various dark money groups, like Wisconsin Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity.
Investigators were getting close to blowing the case wide open, so said dark money groups poured tons of cash into fighting the investigation by filing frivolous lawsuits on both the state and federal levels. Even though their petitions were full of lies and omissions, the dark money groups were able to get the help of the equally corrupt federal Judge Rudolph Randa and put a temporary halt to the investigation.
From Marie Rohde, writing for WisPolitics.com:
John Doe investigators planned to issue subpoenas and search warrants for radio personalities Charlie Sykes and Sean Hannity as part of their secret probe into coordination between conservative groups and Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, according to a lawsuit released today.
Eric O’Keefe and the Club for Growth, two targets of the probe, filed the lawsuit under seal earlier this year in Waukesha County Court accusing the Government Accountability Board of exceeding its authority as it took part in the investigation. A judge ordered a redacted version of the complaint released today following a hearing.
The lawsuit provides no explanation why investigators may have planned the subpoenas for Hannity and Sykes. They were mentioned in a passage on others who received subpoenas in the probe, and the citation for Hannity and Sykes was from a exhibit that was filed under seal. The suit says many more subpoenas were planned for targets throughout the country, but it does not name them.
It's not a big surprise that Sykes, a Milwaukee-based squawk radio host is named. He's been involved with a lot of the propaganda and is currently married to the communications director for the Bradley Foundation, which is one of the dark money groups.
While Hannity's name is a bit surprising, it shouldn't be. After all, he did have his own fundraising scandal.
Oh, and as for the latest bit of inanity from Wisconsin Club for Growth...as the gentle reader could have guessed, they're making things up again. From a press release issued by the GAB lawyer:
In response to allegations in the amended complaint, it is important to be absolutely clear the Board through its Chair was apprised of District Attorney contacts with Government Accountability Board staff concerning the developing John Doe from the beginning.
We have committed to trying this case in the courts, not the media. Allegations in a complaint are just that, allegations, and nothing more. They are not proven facts or conclusions of a court.
We will have an opportunity to file our response and present evidence which we believe will refute and disprove specific allegations as well as the general hyperbole of the plaintiff’s complaint. As with any litigation, we urge the media, public, and elected officials to withhold judgment until the facts are known. After all, that is the basis of our legal system.
We caution pundits and observers not to be hasty in making conclusions based upon partial information. When the facts are known, we trust that erroneous and uninformed conclusions will be corrected
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The scary part about all this is that these cases are headed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear at least some of them. Four out of the seven justices are beholden to the dark money special interests that are behind these lawsuits and don't seem likely to recuse themselves like ethical judges would do.
