Posted on 03/13/2015 1:26:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Several months ago, I called attention to the Kafka-esque “John Doe” proceeding that Milwaukee district attorney John Chisholm has been using against Wisconsin governor (and potential 2016 presidential candidate) Scott Walker and his allies. I’d like to highlight the latest bizarre development in this secret and byzantine legal proceeding, but first let me provide some background (drawn from this article by Stuart Taylor):
1. Back in 2009, when Walker was Milwaukee County executive, his staff discovered that some $11,000 had apparently been embezzled from a county charity and asked the district attorney’s office to conduct a criminal investigation of the embezzlement.
2. In May 2010, Chisholm obtained a court order authorizing him to conduct a so-called “John Doe” proceeding to investigate the embezzlement. Believe it or not, under Wisconsin law this extraordinary John Doe proceeding empowers prosecutors to require complete secrecy from targets and witnesses and thus prevents targets from publicly defending themselves. In the guise of investigating the embezzlement, Chisholm raided Walker’s office and seized thousands of pages of communications between Walker (and his staff) and his supporters.
3. Chisholm—evidently driven by his and his wife’s fervent opposition to Walker’s battle against public-sector unions—then redirected the John Doe investigation into an investigation of possible campaign-finance violations by Walker and his supporters in connection with Walker’s 2012 recall campaign. Taylor sums up what happened next:
>>>>[Chisholm and this team] obtained sweeping subpoenas for records from at least eight phone companies and records from every major private email provider including Google and Yahoo, ultimately amassing hundreds of thousands of pages on the activities of every major conservative group in Wisconsin and many around the country, as well as of Walker and his team. They seized documents from people’s offices and homes.
Armed officers raided the homes of Walker’s supporters across the state, using bright floodlights to illuminate the targets’ homes. Deputies executed the search warrants, seizing business papers, computer equipment, phones, and other devices, while their targets were restrained under police supervision and were denied the ability to contact their lawyers.
At other times, the prosecutors jailed at least two witnesses “who did not possess the information they sought” and “blanketed conservative activists nationwide with [more than 100] invasive subpoenas,” according to court filings.
In the process, Chisholm began targeting the governor’s outside supporters….<<<<
Fast-forward to last month. Now that the targeted conservatives (otherwise known as “Three Unnamed Petitioners,” “Two Unnamed Petitioners,” and “Eight Unnamed Movants”) have gone to court to try to put an end to the witchhunt, the special prosecutor appointed in Chisholm’s stead has, according to this article, filed a motion—under seal, of course—asking “one or more state Supreme Court justices to step aside” from the case. The article speculates that the basis for the request is that three of the “groups mentioned in the investigation … spent heavily in court races to elect” the four conservative justices on the court.
Unfortunately for the prosecutor’s motion, the Wisconsin Code of Judicial Conduct expressly states that a judge’s recusal shall not “be based solely on the sponsorship of an independent expenditure or issue advocacy communication … by an individual or entity involved in the proceeding.” So that’s led the Brennan Center for Justice to file a very strange amicus brief in support of a motion that it has supposedly never seen. (As a formal matter, the Brennan Center contends that its brief is “in support of neither party,” but its arguments cut—ineffectively, to be sure—in only one direction.)
The Brennan Center argues that Wisconsin’s judicial-recusal rule must be applied in a manner consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Due Process holding in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. (2009). At a very general level, that argument is surely correct, but Caperton can’t plausibly be understood to affect the application of the Wisconsin rule in this context. That’s true for two simple reasons.
First, Caperton’s Due Process holding can only be applied to benefit a party who has Due Process rights. The special prosecutor has no such rights. (It’s particularly galling that anyone would invoke Due Process in support of a prosecutor who uses a John Doe proceeding to trample the Due Process rights of those being investigated.)
Second, the five-justice majority in Caperton “conclude[d] that there is a serious risk of actual bias—based on objective and reasonable perceptions—when a person with a personal stake in a particular case had a significant and disproportionate influence in placing the judge on the case by raising funds or directing the judge’s election campaign when the case was pending or imminent.” (Emphasis added.) I’m reliably informed that the targeted parties learned about the John Doe investigation of them only in October 2013 (when armed officers raided the homes of their principals and when the prosecutor blanketed them with subpoenas). But Justice David Prosser was last elected in 2011, Justice Annette Ziegler in 2007, Justice Michael Gableman in 2008, and Justice Patience Roggensack in April 2013. So no party could have acted to put these justices “on the case,” because there was no case or expectation of one at the time independent campaign expenditures were made. (Caperton is distinguishable on additional grounds that I won’t belabor here.)
There was a national MSM push about two months ago about some investigation. I researched it and it was going nowhere and the story was completely bogus.
Realized then he’s not part of the Uniparty.
The powers that be want Jeb Bush to be the nominee.
I think Obama was behind pushing Hillary out of the way. Van Jones joked about her making the ‘grandma’ excuse.
NY TIMES wouldn’t have run that story without prior approval from Obama.
So who do they want?
Hillary is a terrible candidate. Weakest Democrat since Mondale if she makes it through. But Warren isn’t much better.
I’m expecting another African-American to come from nowhere. Cory Booker or somebody.
Dems can’t win without disproportionate black turnout.
Well, this time around, Rush Limbaugh is being more vocal.
Below is part of a segment yesterday on his EIB program titled “Is a New Generation Primed to be Captivated by Conservatism”:
“......................Scott Walker has undermined the liberal agenda in Wisconsin the entire time he’s been governor. He has implemented his agenda while thwarting theirs. And as a result of implementing his agenda, he has cut taxes, he’s creating a budget surplus, he’s created 100,000 new jobs, 30,000 new businesses. Is that not what this country needs, not just in one state, but all over the place?
He’s doing it with Reaganomics. He’s doing it with supply-side, whatever you want to call it. He is limiting, he’s downsizing the command-and-control structure of liberalism. This is a blue state we’re talking about where he’s done this, and he’s done this in the midst of Sarah Palin type treatment. He’s gotten Sarah Palin type treatment and more. He’s withstood every attack. He’s done it without any crying, without any whining, without any moaning, without any complaining whatsoever.
He doesn’t even listen to it. He just ignores it and goes about the business of implementing his agenda on the basis that’s what he was elected to do. He won the election. He has analyzed he won the election because he spelled out his agenda. It was supported, he’s got the mandate to implement it. He does it. Exactly what everybody seems to think is necessary to reverse course nationwide. So that’s what I tell people when they ask me. And I shouldn’t be, but I’m openly shocked to their faces that they don’t know any of it.”
Damn. So if you’re a supporter of Walker and you’re targeted for a police raid, you’re detained and lose the right to contact an attorney.
Why this hideous practice of “John Doe” investigations hasn’t been squashed by a court challenge is beyond me.
But it's being dealt with.
Is Scott Walker Unstoppable? - also about recent polling.
Moochelle 16
I have a silly question: What ever happened with the original embezzlement?
Must have been a Democrat.
Jan 23, 2013:Ex-Walker aide Timothy Russell sentenced to 2 years in prison for veterans theft
Law-fare is being waged against Walker just like the Austin DA going after governor Perry in Texas.
It’s what the Left is infamous for [Tom DeLay, Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Scott Walker, Chris Christie...... someone who they see as a threat to their assault on our nation] - where a Democrat DA along with their MSM allies, targets someone to endlessly tie up in court, while the state media tries them on the front pages.
Msm and other left sources have been cooing about how wonderful it would be to follow Hussein with his husband Michelle. They are running up flags and throwing straws in front of the fan. They are not doing it because these thoughts just popped up in their own heads.
It’s hell when a governor’s own KGB targets him. At least in Wisconsin the KGB doesn’t shoot its victims in the head, not yet.
LIBERAL DA’s from places like Austin and Madison don’t like it when a conservative is sitting in the governor’s mansion.
DAs
Yes. Thank you.
Keep in mind that the Obamas are arrogant narcissists. Do not be surprised if Michelle steps forward to be the 2016 candidate.
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