The Clinton administration’s scandals du jour created a new term — “document dump,” when Clinton’s minions got around to releasing reams of documents, usually on Friday afternoons hoping to escape media notice.
That didn’t happen yesterday, when more emails than you can read were released on the attempt by Wisconsin Democrats to derail Gov. Scott Walker’s 2014 gubernatorial and possible 2016 presidential campaigns.
This, from WisPolitics, is what passes for a bombshell:
Prosecutors suspected Scott Walker knew his aides in the Milwaukee County exec’s office were operating on a secret computer network and sought to expand their John Doe probe the day before the 2010 election, newly released documents show.
The documents also showed prosecutors subpoenaed Walker’s 2010 guv campaign to get a better handle on who was replying to the political emails his county employees sent from their public offices. They were also trying to see if Walker was involved in the activities. …
The thousands of pages, including emails, affidavits and court transcripts released Wednesday were from the case against former Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch, one of six people convicted in a John Doe probe. Prosecutors closed that probe, but have since opened a separate, second John Doe built partially on evidence collected during the first investigation. …
The documents show prosecutors requested permission the day before the 2010 gubernatorial election to expand the Doe to four additional Walker aides.
That included: Rindfleisch, Walker’s deputy chief of staff; chief of staff Tom Nardelli; communication director Fran McLaughlin; and Dorothy Moore, the scheduler for the county exec. Out of those four, only Rindfleisch was eventually charged.
The judge overseeing the probe signed off on the request as well as one for search warrants covering the county exec’s offices in the courthouse, Rindfleisch’s homes in West Allis and Columbia County, and her car.
Among other things, the documents show prosecutors believed members of Walker’s staff worked in concert to hide the work they were doing in the public office.
Prosecutors had previously disclosed an email from Walker to Tim Russell following the troubles of former aide Darlene Wink in which he wrote, “We cannot afford another story like this one. No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the workday, etc.”
But according to the records, employees continued to use private email accounts to do campaign work while in their public offices. …
I should probably find a hissing-cat sound effect to add to this:
The emails also offered some unflattering commentary by Walker aides and allies on people like Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and then Lt. Gov. candidate Rebecca Kleefisch.
An email from Barrett in the spring of 2010 comments on a job fair held by AirTran, saying having the airline base crew in the city was a “feather in our cap.”
Walker responded to the initial email, which copied several other campaign allies and county staffers, saying “Mayor forgot to thank the county for running one of the best airports in the country which is why Air Tran is adding jobs here.”
Walker and Barrett squared off for the guv’s office that fall.
In reply to that email, Robert Dennik, a former deputy chief of staff to Walker and, at the time, a VP for VJS Construction, said: “Small detail when you’re the abti-christ[sic]!!!”
In addition, Rindfleisch also repeatedly complained about Kleefisch. Most of the comments were in emails that dealt with Rindfleisch’s campaign work for then-state Rep. Brett Davis, who was running in a primary campaign against Kleefisch for lt. guv.
One exchange followed an invite to an event featuring a joint appearance with Kleefisch and Walker in March. Rindfleisch contacted Walker campaign manager Keith Gilkes and wrote it gave the impression that Walker was endorsing Kleefisch. When she was told that Walker was doing appearances with other lt. guv candidates as well, Rindfleisch asked if she’ll be able to use the appearance for advertising, writing in the email that Kleefisch “is the bane of your existence.”
Gilkes replied that she wouldn’t be allowed to use the appearance for advertising and “that will be made abundantly clear to her.”
Rindfleisch’s dislike of Kleefisch carried forward when she was told by Walker’s county exec spokeswoman Fran McLaughlin that Kleefisch didn’t show up to an event attended by Davis. Rindfleisch responds “I hope she keeps missing them. And topples over in her high heels.”
That is fundamentally what yesterday’s e-document dump is all about. It is not about finding Walker’s illegal actions, because, as Charlie Sykes reminds us, there were none to be found:
As the media and partisan operatives (but I repeat myself) sift through 27,000 pages of emails from that “secret” probe, we find volumes of old news, office gossip, political chatter, and unproved allegations.
But no White Whale. Only some random guppies.
Nothing in the new batch of emails incriminates Walker in any way. But we already knew that: if there was evidence of criminal activity, prosecutors would have filed charges. Instead, they shut down that probe without charges against the governor.
Now they seem intent on trying to score points in the court of public opinion that they didn’t dare try in a court of law. And Democrats have stripped even the thin of veneer of non-partisanship from the probe by going all-in to exploit it for partisan advantage.
This brings us to the latest investigation: John Doe II.
Lost amid the back and forth over the latest secret investigation of conservatives in Wisconsin is this inconvenient detail: there is no White Whale here either.
The John Doe II probe allegedly centers on charges that Scott Walker’s re-election campaign and dozens of conservative nonprofit groups known as 501(c)(4)s may have illegally coordinated their efforts during the 2012 recall campaign.
But in quashing numerous subpoenas, Judge Gregory A. Peterson, the judge presiding over the Doe, has ruled that the prosecutors had not shown “probable cause that the moving parties committed any violations of the campaign finance laws.” What the targets were accused of doing, the judge said, was in fact, protected free speech.
The order is all the more remarkable because it bluntly rejects the prosecutor’s theory of illegal coordination between the groups and the Walker campaign. Wisconsin’s campaign finance statutes ban coordination between independent groups and candidates for a “political purpose.” But a political purpose “requires express advocacy,” the judge wrote, and express advocacy means directly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate.
“There is no evidence of express advocacy” and therefore “the subpoenas fail to show probable cause that a crime was committed,” Judge Peterson wrote. Even “the State is not claiming that any of the independent organizations expressly advocated” for the election of Mr. Walker or his opponent, he added. Instead they did “issue advocacy,” which focuses on specific political issues.
So after all the pre-dawn raids, the seizure of personal computers, kitchen sink demands for records and emails, the sweeping probe turns out to be an investigation without a crime.
Let’s repeat that sentence: if there was evidence of criminal activity, prosecutors would have filed charges. They didn’t.
How do we know this is a partisan witch hunt? Media Trackers profiles the chief persecutor:
Formerly secret documents released by prosecutors and made public by a liberal advocacy group show David Budde, the chief investigator in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, played a central role in the politicized John Doe investigation that concluded shortly after Gov. Scott Walker was re-elected in 2012.
On May 21, 2012, Media Trackers reported that Budde had a Democratic Party of Wisconsin “Recall Walker” sign in his front yard and an AFL-CIO union fist poster on his front door. Democrats hoped that the investigation Budde was helping lead would destroy Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) chance to win the recall election.
The released documents relate to prosecutors’ investigation of Kelly Rindfleisch, a Republican operative who struck a plea deal with the District Attorney’s office after engaging in political activity during working hours at her Milwaukee County government job. Before now the records were not public since John Doe investigations are conducted entirely in secret.
Democrats in 2011 and 2012 seized on numerous leaks about the investigation to suggest Walker’s political career would be over by the time the investigation concluded. The fact that the Milwaukee County DA John Chisholm is a Democrat and 43 members of his staff signed petitions to recall Walker raised questions about a possible political motivation to the probe.
Walker was never charged with any wrongdoing. …
In seeking to obtain an affidavit to search the home of Darlene Wink, another county employee, who was then in her late 50′s, Budde explains that he had a male investigator – Paul Bratonja – stalk the woman and track her movements before bringing his intentions before a judge.
Wink later pled guilt to two misdemeanors – not felonies – and was given probation.
On August 20, 2010, Budde wrote an affidavit backing up Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf’s request to broaden the scope of the John Doe investigation. Less than a month later on October 18, Budde asked a judge to give him more investigative power to search other records for evidence to build a case.
Budde also helped orchestrate a raid of the County Executive’s office by investigators and representatives of the DA’s office in November of 2010. Three of the people mentioned as targets of the raid were never found guilty or even so much as charged with any wrongdoing.
It appears that Budde, a long time political supporter of his Democratic boss Chisholm, never faced any repercussions for allowing a recall Walker yard sign in his yard. The situation made it appear as if Budde was extraordinarily biased in his perspective and thus possibly partisan in his work on the John Doe investigation.
Let’s repeat that sentence: Walker was never charged with any wrongdoing. But don’t believe me, believe the judge, as Watchdog reports:
On a day when news headlines nationwide screamed of Gov. Scott Walker’s “apparent” knowledge of illegal campaigning going on in his office when he was Milwaukee County executive, the judge of the nearly three-year “secret” investigation into Walker’s former aides and associates summed up the meat of the matter.
“The John Doe is closed and the results of the John Doe speak for themselves in terms of who has allegedly committed a crime, who has been charged with a crime and who has been convicted of a crime,” former Appeals Court Judge Neal Nettesheim told Wisconsin Reporter on Wednesday.
Not on that conviction list, perhaps much to the dismay of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and like-minded liberals, was Walker.
Nettesheim served as the presiding judge over a sprawling probe launched in spring 2010 by the Democrat-led Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office. He shut down the investigation in March 2013, months after the prosecution’s quest for convictions fizzled out. In the end, Democrat DA John Chisholm and his prosecution squad had compiled six convictions — only two of them related to the original scope of the John Doe, and no charges of wrongdoing by Walker. …
“The John Doe here is closed except for one lingering motion which was brought by the Journal Sentinel,” Nettesheim said, referring to the newspaper’s push for the judge to release all documents under seal in the probe. That decision has been delayed, Nettesheim said.
Nettesheim said he was not surprised by the political heat the first John Doe probe generated.
“When I was approached by director of the state court office and was asked if I’d be willing to conduct the John Doe, I knew very well the political implications on both sides of the aisle,” the judge said. “But like Harry Truman once said, I find the heat in this kitchen very comfortable.”
Nettesheim said he managed to equally aggravate the right and the left.
There appears to be something larger going on here, as Matt Kittle reports:
In advance of the court-ordered release of thousands of personal emails of a convicted former aide to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker when Walker served as Milwaukee County executive, liberal attack group American Bridge on Wednesday morning giddily announced it was launching a new website on Wisconsin’s not-so-secret John Doe probes.
American Bridge, the Hillary Clinton-attached, super political action committee run by former Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse, rolled out the website as a court lifted the seal on Kelly Rindfleisch’s emails.
The announcement of the website follows American Bridge’s breathless “memo” Tuesday reminding members of the media of the scheduled release of the documents. The group need not have bothered: Every outlet from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel to the Washington Post seemed to eagerly anticipate the looming distribution of Rindfleish’s emails.
American Bridge’s website — dubbed JohnDoeWalker.com — drives home the point that the left appears to be doing all in its power to connect the name of Scott Walker to the politically charged John Doe investigations which have, to date, found no evidence of any wrongdoing by Walker, a bona fide threat to the Democrats’ quest to hold the White House in 2016. …
American Bridge and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin have hammered on the latest John Doe investigation, also launched by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, into dozens of conservative organizations. The presiding judge in that probe has quashed several of the subpoenas and ordered the return of property to targets subjected to pre-dawn raids, arguing the prosecution failed to show evidence of alleged illegal campaign coordination reportedly between the conservative groups and Walker’s campaign during the 2012 recall elections. …
American Bridge’s coordinated effort to drag Walker’s name through the mud of an investigation that has not found the governor guilty of any wrongdoing may, in the minds of conservatives, substantiate their darkest suspicions: That the John Doe investigation is part of a national effort to cut the tongue out of conservative political speech, in the mission of taking down Walker.
The smear campaign against Walker — who was charged with nothing from the John Doe investigation — is Wisconsin’s chapter in a nationwide campaign by Democrats and their apparatchiks — including, as we know, the Internal Revenue Service — to destroy conservatives.
Kittle calls this “Wisconsin’s Secret War,” but it’s really not a secret anymore.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
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