Will the voices of the John Doe victims be heard?

Wisconsin Watchdog ^ | 10-1-15 | M. D. Kittle

[afraidfortherepublic]

MADISON, Wis. — The state Government Accountability Board has launched a desperate public relations campaign to save the rogue agency.

And the left — including Wisconsin’s mainstream media — has been more than willing to provide backup for the state’s campaign finance, election and ethics regulator.

What you will find in the GAB’s PR campaign is a plea for more delay in reforming a “nonpartisan” agency found to have been extremely partisan in pushing a political probe into dozens of conservative groups and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker.

Delay has been the modus operandi of the GAB in defending itself against a lawsuit alleging the accountability board has been anything but accountable as it overstepped its authority on the taxpayer’s dime.

What you won’t find in mainstream media stories springing to the GAB’s defense are voices of the conservative targets of the John Doe investigation who have for years had their lives turned upside down in the name of politics.

As Deborah Jordahl put it, “People’s homes were raided in the dark over speech.”

Jordahl and her family were among several Wisconsin citizens whose homes were subject to predawn, paramilitary-style raids. Law enforcement agents, acting on general warrants sought by a GAB special investigator, rooted through and seized the possessions of these people on the pretext of a campaign finance/illegal coordination theory that has been roundly rejected by three courts — the most recent rejection coming in July from the state Supreme Court, which declared the John Doe unconstitutional and ordered it shut down.

You won’t find those facts in the plea for delay from GAB chairman Gerald Nichol.

In his letter to lawmakers, Nichol raises concerns about a pending bill that would dismantle the GAB and more than likely turn out the career bureaucrats who have led what conservatives have described as a partisan witch-hunt.

It’s too soon, he says. Why, in 13 months the state will take part in a high-turnout presidential election.

“The public and the agency’s customers will not be well served by rushing through a sweeping reorganization at this point in the election cycle,” Nichol wrote.

Jordahl will tell you the public and the constitution have not been well served by an agency that has acted with little regard to either.

“If Judge Nichol and the GAB want the Legislature to delay plans to revamp the agency, the GAB should immediately withdraw its opposition to unsealing documents in Waukesha County Court related to its role in the John Doe investigation,” Jordahl told Wisconsin Watchdog.

As Wisconsin Watchdog has reported, the Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of 29 conservative groups the GAB and its prosecutor allies at the Democrat-led Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office targeted in the years-long probe, is seeking the release of 180 pages of documents from the accountability board.

RELATED: Still no word on GAB emails to left-leaning groups

The GAB has vigorously fought to keep those documents and others under seal, claiming the agency’s secrecy codes protect their release.

Attorneys for conservative activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth have argued the documents are central to their lawsuit that the GAB overstepped its authority in the John Doe.

“These communications could be potentially embarrassing to this agency,” Lucinda Luetkemeyer, attorney for O’Keefe and the club said in court last month, referring to other communications that may show the GAB working with left-leaning groups.

If the GAB acted appropriately and within the law, “it should welcome the transparency,” Jordahl said.

“Instead the staff and judges (who preside over the accountability board) are doing everything they can to delay disclosure because they cannot defend their actions in the case,” she added.

Aides to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, on Wednesday said they have reached a deal on GAB reform legislation, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

As first reported in Wisconsin Watchdog, state Rep. Dean Knudson, R-Hudson, planned to put forward a bill that would end the “eight-year failed experiment in Wisconsin” that has been the state GAB.

“We need to take this thing apart,” Knudson, a member of the Legislature’s powerful Joint Finance Committee, told Wisconsin Watchdog last month.

But conservatives who have been harassed and intimidated by agents of the probe have expressed concern that some Republican lawmakers could hold up or try to water down legislative action.

There have been reports that some GOP legislators claim to know nothing about the GAB’s role in the unconstitutional investigation.

“GAB staff and contract investigators helped plan and pay for the attacks,” Jordahl said. “In one case, a 16-year-old boy was home alone when six armed law enforcement officers searched his family’s home. He was denied the ability to call his parents, grandparents or a lawyer. He was forced to show up two hours late for school and told that he could go to jail if he told anyone why.”

“Dozens of interviews have been conducted and hundreds of articles written detailing the agency’s partisan motives, illegal and unethical behavior and efforts to cover it all up. What else do these legislators need to know?”

This Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of the raids.

“We still don’t have our property back, but (GAB director) Kevin Kennedy and the GAB are still in business,” Jordahl said.

Here’s hoping the voices of the citizens attacked in this unconstitutional investigation will rise above the public relations din of an agency desperately trying to keep its bad conduct in the dark.

[afraidfortherepublic]

JOHN DOE VICTIM: Deborah Jordahl is among several conservative targets whose homes were subject to predawn, paramilitary-style raids in the unconstitutional John Doe investigation.

[afraidfortherepublic]

And the beat goes on. Media aids GAB in fighting for existence because “it is too close to the 2016 election” to remap the committee. Where have you heard that before? HINT: Remember the excuses used to drag out implementing photo voter id for years?

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