One thing Matt Kittle reported …

Agents for the embattled state Government Accountability Board continued a zealous campaign finance investigation into dozens of conservative groups even after judges who preside over the board voted to shut it down, according to a previously sealed brief made public Friday.

The documents, from an updated complaint filed by conservative plaintiffs in a case against the GAB, appear to support claims that the campaign finance, ethics and election law regulator is a rogue agency. They also show that the GAB considered using the state’s John Doe law to investigate key state conservatives and even national figures, including Fox News’ Sean Hannity and WTMJ Milwaukee host Charlie Sykes.

… makes the aforementioned Charlie Sykes observe:

Back in October 2013, according to court documents, Milwaukee’s Democrat DA John Chisholm and other John Doe investigators launched pre-dawn raids against conservative activists …

On Friday afternoon, I found out … that could have been my house. That could have been me. My computers. My phones. My Ipad. They could have seized all of my notes, including my show prep. They could also seized my wife’s computer and phones, and trust me, she wouldn’t have been happy about that.

Given the way the John Doe law works, prosecutors would also have slapped me with a gag order to prevent me from talking about any of it. In theory, I would not have been able to talk about the attack of the Speech Police on conservatives here. And maybe that was the point, because legally, the idea of targeting the media makes no sense at all. (Spoiler alert: there is a “media exemption” from campaign finance laws.)

Honestly, part of me wishes they had gone ahead and tried – we have some awfully good lawyers who would have made short work of their hackery.

But here is the more chilling reality: reading the notes released Friday, one gets the impression that the probe was hatched deep in the fever swamps of the left. The Doe, it turns out, was the deepest expression of the progressive Id: all of the malice, all of the disdain for conservatives, and an obsessive desire to rewrite the First Amendment. The prosecution theory was based on what the left wanted the law to be, not what the Supreme Court has repeatedly said the constitution demanded. But they went ahead anyway. Whatever the original pretext may have been, the Doe had morphed into an all-out assault on political speech that included the media itself  – an assault remarkable for its apparent cluelessness on First Amendment law.

We also now know that the GAB was deliberately flouting the law in multiple ways and deliberately keeping their activities secret from those who were legally intended to give oversight. They were using the power of the government to persecute — not prosecute — their political enemies. This goes beyond malfeasance.

For the record: no prosecutor ever contacted me and I have no idea why they might have wanted to subpoena me other than the obvious fact that they really, really don’t like conservatives … and absolutely loathe talk radio. Confession here: I do keep in touch with conservative politicians; I am in frequent touch with conservative activists, as well as writers, commentators, and pundits. That’s because I am a conservative talk show host and to my knowledge that has not yet been declared to be a criminal activity. But apparently that was not for lack of trying.

The fact that the Doe prosecutors thought that it might be illegal tells me that their theory of illegal coordination was so sweeping that it overflowed the banks of the First Amendment. No wonder two judges shut it down.

Perhaps because calmer voices prevailed (or perhaps because they realized they were about to run into a legal buzz saw), the prosecutors never followed through on the idea to slap me with a subpoena or a search warrant. But, apparently, they continued their pursuit by other means. Before Judge Peterson quashed the subpoenas and ordered the return of property seized in the October 3 raids, according to sources close to the Doe probe, the Milwaukee DA’s office tried to get “Charlie Sykes’ emails” through other groups targeted in the probes, by negotiating the terms of the subpoenas served on other organizations.

So it was worse than we thought. And we thought it was pretty bad.

To quote an ’80s infomercial: Wait! There’s more!

But a savvy reader also noted the other key items included in the documents that were unsealed by Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr.:

1. GAB used the Gardner case (from Doe 1) to investigate Friends of Scott Walker, but not Democratic groups who received money from Gardner. Paragraph 43.

2. GAB Director Kennedy and Jonathan Becker got themselves and the GAB “admitted” to John Doe II right after it was convened in early September 2012.  They did this without the knowledge or approval of the GAB Board, didn’t tell the Board about it in the October 2012 meeting, and then told the Board in its December 2012 meeting that they had learned of Doe II after the October meeting.  This was false. It’s important because it shows that GAB staff were taking steps to avoid triggering board votes and disclosures as required by law.  Paragraph 51.

3.  The GAB and DA’s decided to set up and use a shadow email system of Gmail accounts solely for purposes of the Doe,keeping their emails off of the official Wisconsin system.   This was to avoid discovery of what they had done.  Paragraph 52. ,,,

5.  The GAB and Doe prosecutors misled the Attorney General about the role GAB had already had since the outset of Doe II.  Paragraph 56. …

8.  The GAB came up with the idea of paying for the special prosecutor out of GAB funds so that the state special prosecutor fund would not have to be used.  Paragraph 58. …

11.  Schmitz was hired by GAB on August 7, 2013, to serve as a special “investigator” for GAB at $130 per hour.  Schmitz worked with GAB and the Milwaukee County DA to get himself appointed by John Doe Judge Kluka “on her own motion.” They did this by drafting a letter to Kluka that would be signed by each of the county prosecutors involved in the Doe.  Schmitz personally obtained the signatures of at least some of the prosecutors.  Paragraphs 65-68. This is significant because it shows the prosecutors, Schmitz, and GAB were trying to circumvent a statute that otherwise didn’t permit a special prosecutor to be hired.  Second, the argued that a special prosecutor was needed because GAB had no statewide authority.  But the letter did not disclose to Kluka that GAB was already involved, had already hired Schmitz, and had already agreed to pay him $130 per hour.  Judge Kluka signed an order requiring the Wisconsin Department of Administration to pay Schmitz $130 per hour, when in fact, GAB was going to be paying Schmitz.  No one ever informed Kluka that they were not following her order, and had never intended to follow it. …

21. The GAB broke the law by participating in Doe II for 10 months without opening an investigation. This enabled them to avoid notice requirements.  Paragraph 99-104.

22.  The GAB effectively referred the matter to the district attorneys of 5 counties in early July 2013, and at that point, it could not continue its own investigation.  Paragraph 105.  The GAB believed it had “probable cause,” which forces it to either refer the matter to prosecutors or start its own civil proceeding, but it did neither so that it could continue to secretly and illegally gather documents and evidence.  Paragraphs 107-108.

These are the kind of “investigations” taking place in Wisconsin in lieu of investigating actual crimes against people and property. Particularly in the most crime-ridden part of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

As a friend of mine put it: No wonder Barack Obama wants to normalize relations with Cuba. We are becoming Cuba.