WHAT DID THEY SAY? Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Government Accountability Board are waiting for a judge to rule on whether the GAB must release communications it sent to left-leaning election groups.
Posted on 10/01/2015 12:38:27 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
MADISON, Wisconsin — Conservative targets of Wisconsin’s political John Doe investigation were still waiting Wednesday for a judge’s decision on whether the state Government Accountability Board must turn over communications it had with liberal political groups.
Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. was expected to rule two weeks ago, but the court doesn’t have Microsoft Outlook software, and the judge was unable to view the correspondence in question.
Attorneys for the GAB have since sent the documents in PDF.
Eddie Greim, attorney for conservative activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, both plaintiffs in a lawsuit alleging the GAB overstepped its authority in the unconstitutional John Doe probe, tells Wisconsin Watchdog the judge has yet to issue his decision.
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.
Attorney Lucinda 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.
Luetkemeyer said the firm discovered some of the emails in previous depositions.
“These communications could be potentially embarrassing to this agency,” the attorney 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.
In another development involving the GAB lawsuit, the plaintiffs’ attorneys have sent new requests to subpoena Milwaukee County assistant district attorneys David Robles and Bruce Landgraf, as well as Milwaukee County DA investigator Robert Stelter.
The office, led by Democrat District Attorney John Chisholm, launched the secret John Doe probe in August 2012. Multiple emails show Milwaukee County prosecutors and investigators working with the GAB, which, under law, is prohibited from conducting criminal investigations.
At the same hearing earlier this month, Dreyfus ruled Landgraf, Robles and Stelter would not have to be deposed.
RELATED: John Doe prosecutors get a win, practice legal gymnastics again
The reason, according to the judge, is prosecutorial immunity that effectively protects the prosecutors.
While Dreyfus acknowledged Wisconsin is a “wide-open discovery state,” the attorneys for O’Keefe and his Wisconsin Club for Growth cannot “depose people who are not part of” the lawsuit.
In short, the district attorney’s files on the John Doe probe are “not discoverable,” at least in this lawsuit, Dreyfus said.
Greim argued the plaintiffs are only seeking to answer questions on “division of duties” in the probe, among other matters that do not directly relate to John Doe evidence. Those process questions, the attorney said, are important in determining GAB’s ultimate involvement.
He said the latest requests for depositions are “more narrow.”
Also, the plaintiffs’ are seeking the release of 180 pages of documents now protected under a secrecy order.
The GAB wants to keep many of those exhibits under seal, claiming they are supposed to be shielded under the accountability board’s confidentiality clause and the secrecy order in the John Doe.
It appears the GAB would rather not have embarrassing emails out in the public domain, much like the conservative targets of their investigation. Although some of those individuals, who haven’t been charged with wrongdoing, had their personal lives placed on public display through document dumps by a judge who worked closely with the prosecutors.
“We want to amend the protective order so that everything could be released, subject to the identification of the targets. The GAB has opposed that. We have until Friday to reply,” Greim said.
Many of the current questions before the court are expected to be argued at a scheduled hearing Oct. 7.
Greim said the plaintiffs plan to take the lawsuit to trial “as soon as the court can get us in.”
He 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.
WHAT DID THEY SAY? Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Government Accountability Board are waiting for a judge to rule on whether the GAB must release communications it sent to left-leaning election groups.
Lot’s of shenanigans going on here. Can you believe that our courts do not have the proper software to read these emails? This is like the 3 stooge. Who’s on first?
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
You know the drill. Freep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list. Remember, this GAB and John Doe nonsense may be coming to your state soon. The Democrats LOVES this process. That's how they win elections around here.
Why is this an issue? The state Government Accountability Board (GAB) is a government entity, paid for by tax dollars, is it not?
They work for the public. The public has the right to see their communications. Or is the GAB itself corrupt?
Should be a no brainer decision.
I'm afraid that you picked it. The GAB is a bunch of lazy, retired judges who want to do as little as possible -- mostly of the Dem stripe -- and run by a civilian staff of highly partisan Democrats.
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