Posted on 10/06/2015 3:39:51 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Part 254 of 252 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War
MADISON, Wisconsin — A Waukesha County judge has ordered the state Government Accountability Board to turn over communications it had with liberal political groups.
The GAB last month had argued against the release to the conservative targets of the unconstitutional John Doe investigation.
But Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. on Friday declared the GAB’s communications to and from the left-leaning groups, although shielded from public consumption at this point, must be turned over to the conservative plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the agency.
Long-time political activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth are suing the accountability board, alleging the political speech regulator overstepped its authority in driving the John Doe – at taxpayers’ expense.
As of late day Monday, the plaintiffs’ attorneys were still waiting for the GAB to send out the communications, according to Lucinda Luetkemeyer, attorney at Kansas City, Missouri-based Graves Garrett LLC.
“We are pleased the court agreed with plaintiffs that these communications are relevant and discoverable,” she said. “We look forward to reviewing them and determining how the GAB may have used taxpayer dollars in furtherance of the John Doe investigation. Time will tell what they say.”
Luetkemeyer said she is hopeful the plaintiffs will receive copies of the communications before Wednesday’s scheduled status hearing on outstanding issues surrounding the lawsuit.
On Sept. 15, the plaintiffs asked the judge to compel the accountability board to turn over communications it had with the Brennan Center for Justice and the Campaign Legal Center.
Luetkemeyer argued the communications could clarify whether the GAB helped the outside groups in writing amicus, or friend-of-the court, briefs in John Doe-related litigation, or whether the groups helped the accountability board.
The GAB should “show what the law is, not what the law should be,” Luetkemeyer told Dreyfus. “This goes to our theory, that they had an agenda about what the campaign finance law should look like,” not what the law is.
The attorney last month said the firm discovered some of the emails in previous depositions.
“These communications could be potentially embarrassing to this agency,” she said.
The GAB helped drive the political investigation based on a widely rejected theory of illegal coordination between Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and dozens of conservative organizations. In July, the state Supreme Court in a 4-2 ruling declared the investigation unconstitutional and ordered it shut down.
The Brennan Center is a public policy and law institute that focuses on the fundamental issues of democracy and justice, according to its website. Like the GAB, the center claims it’s nonpartisan but is widely viewed as a left-leaning organization whose supporters include the ultra-left Democracy Alliance and the Open Society Foundations funded by liberal billionaire George Soros. The Brennan Center received $7.4 million of Soros money from 2000 to 2010, according to Newsbusters.
CLC claims to represent the public interest in strong enforcement of campaign finance laws. The group has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from Soros-funded organizations. In 2010, the Campaign Legal Center joined other liberal groups asking the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of Republican-allied groups. Former IRS official Lois Lerner is accused of leading a campaign to target conservative groups filing as tax-exempt.
In July, the Wall Street Journal reported that GAB director Kevin Kennedy and Lerner were in contact between 2011 and 2013 — when the GAB assisted partisan prosecutors in investigating scores of conservatives and in raiding several of their homes.
“Emails we’ve seen show that between 2011 and 2013 the two were in contact on multiple occasions, sharing articles on topics including greater donor disclosure and Wisconsin’s recall elections,” the editorial board wrote.
John Doe investigators asked the IRS to look into a conservative group that was a primary target of the probe, sources told the Journal.
Eddie Greim, legal counsel for the plaintiffs, has said his clients plan to take the lawsuit to trial “as soon as the court can get us in.”
The plaintiffs are pushing for much of the information received through discovery to be made public. Greim said it’s likely much of the information being suppressed now will eventually come out in a trial.
“The public has a right to know. That’s why we have open court proceedings, why we have open records,” Greim said.
How many juges orders will it take?
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
judges
My Evelyn Wood reading eye got it right the first time. :)
To answer your rhetorical question, there are not enough hearings or southern pines to produce the paper.
This country needs to build a large, large, prison dedicated to holding only committers white collar crimes. Like bribery, racketeering, perjury, embezzlement, violations of public trust, and other criminal misbehaviors. And as soon as it is built, they’ll have to start on another one because there is no way you could build one prison that would hold all of the government corruption in this country.
judges’
“This country needs to build a large, large, prison dedicated to holding only committers white collar crimes. Like bribery, racketeering, perjury, embezzlement, violations of public trust, and other criminal misbehaviors. And as soon as it is built, they’ll have to start on another one because there is no way you could build one prison that would hold all of the government corruption in this country.”
When it comes to government corruption, it would be cheaper to give the few in government who are honest a bonus! Corruption is there at all levels. We recently had our roof replaced which required a building permit and supposedly some inspections to make certain that the contractor didn’t cut corners. Well at the end of the day, there were actually no inspections, but rather a hold harmless letter that the contractor needed to sign to make sure that the town wasn’t liable if any substandard work were ultimately found. They also made a demand of the contractor that he get our permission to “inspect” the interior of our home “to make sure we had the requires smoke/ CO detectors.” We declined to give permission. The town then held the permit open until it expired and sent us several threatening letters, but at the end of the day, they simply pocketed the permit fees and went away.
I will bet you that local governments are even more corrupt that the state and federal governments. The difference is local governments are closer to us all and so it’s easier for them to be abusive.
It is easier for local government to abuse us.... but its also easier for us to change local government. My father was a city council man. He was cheated by good ole boy local politics one time, and he ran for office with the goal to fire the city manager. It took 6 years of him in office to get enough like minded people elected to vote with him, but he got it done. That’s why our constitution is so important. The 10th amendment was intended to bring almost all government back to a local level of some sort. Our founders are rolling over in their graves because of our current federal government.
Just wait until the dawn police raids on GAB staffers’ homes (/sarcasm)
“Our founders are rolling over in their graves because of our current federal government.”
No truer statement has ever been made!
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