$775,000 and rising — Wisconsin taxpayers’ bill to defend John Doe prosecutors
Taxpayers conservatively have spent north of $775,000 defending the prosecutors of a politically charged John Doe investigation driven on a legal theory that even the prosecutors have rejected.
The state, as of Monday, had paid $368,654.60 for the legal defense of Francis Schmitz, the special prosecutor for the multi-county John Doe probe into dozens of conservative organizations and Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, according to information obtained by Wisconsin Reporter through an open records request.
Taxpayers are on the hook for another $407,643.58 in attorney fees to defend Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, the Democrat who launched the probe in late summer 2012, two of his assistant DAs and a special investigator contracted by the state Government Accountability Board.
“That’s an awful lot of taxpayer dollars to advance a legal theory that the state itself has already repudiated,” said Andrew M. Grossman, an attorney for political activist Eric O’Keefe and his Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of 29 conservative groups targeted in the campaign finance probe.
The expenditures were released by Walker’s legal counsel, who, under state law, is in charge of handling the legal bills of the same people who for the past few years have gone after Walker’s campaign and the Republican governor’s conservative allies.
Costs reflect only money spent defending the prosecutors in federal court.
FULL ARTICLE:
http://watchdog.org/203651/john-doe-taxpayers-defend/