ACCOUNTABILITY SPIN: Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board, Wisconsin’s political speech regulator, has offered accounts of the GAB’s conduct in a secret political investigation that appear to be at odds with the record.
Posted on 10/28/2015 5:24:22 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Part 274 of 272 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War
By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Watchdog
MADISON, Wis. – As Kevin Kennedy goes about trying to save his job and his rogue state agency, the director of the state Government Accountability Board is twisting, if not torturing, some facts.
In his supplemental testimony on the agency released this week, Kennedy takes issue with state Sen. Leah Vukmir’s question on the GAB’s early involvement in a political John Doe probe into 29 conservative organizations and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker. The Supreme Court in July ruled the investigation unconstitutional and ordered it shut down.
A bill that would overhaul the GAB, the regulator of Wisconsin campaign finance, election, ethics and lobbying laws, passed last week in the Assembly and now awaits Senate action.
Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, raised this point at a recent legislative hearing on the bill:
In December of 2012, GAB staff admitted to having involvement in the John Doe II investigation since August of that same year, but failed to inform the GAB Board.
Kennedy responded that Vukmir’s assertion “simply is not so.†He further states:
The Government Accountability Board members were fully informed when the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office contacted staff to ask questions about campaign finance law related to one of its investigations. This false allegation comes from a frivolous lawsuit filed by one of the targets of the investigation.
Kennedy, it seems, is referring to a lawsuit filed against the GAB by conservative activist Eric O’Keefe and his Wisconsin Club for Growth, both targeted in the politically charged probe. That lawsuit, which the GAB has never deemed frivolous in its arguments in court, is heading for a trial after nearly a year and a half of proceedings. The plaintiffs allege Kennedy, his staff and the six retired judges who preside over the accountability board, greatly exceeded the agency’s authority at taxpayer’s expense.
The December 2012 closed meeting minutes, unsealed in the lawsuit late last year, suggest GAB staffers told board members they had only learned of the investigation after the October 2012 board meeting. In fact, the initial meeting with agents from the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, the GAB’s John Doe partners, was in August 2012 – a fact that staff members did not appear to divulge to the board.
Kennedy and GAB Judge David Deininger had testified that Kennedy probably told Deininger about the August sessions over the phone at some point in August 2012, but no one could testify when that conversation occurred.
“No one could testify that the other board members were informed of this back in August,†O’Keefe said Wednesday.
O’Keefe added that there is no evidence that anyone was told about former GAB staff Counsel Shane Falk’s continuing assistance to the prosecutors or his many contacts with Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney David Robles between August 2012 and June 2013, when the board finally voted to be admitted into the investigation.
Last week, the Waukesha County Court, where the lawsuit is filed, released 182 pages of emails, transcripts of closed-door meetings and other previously sealed documents related to the GAB’s involvement in the John Doe.
The records show the agency was in on “John Doe II,†as it has been billed, from the beginning.
An email dated Aug. 8, 2012, from Robles to GAB Ethics Division Administrator Jonathan Becker discuss a meeting on the investigation.
In November 2012, Robles sent an email to his partners at GAB advising them to use segregated Gmail addresses for “stuff related to the Badger Doe.â€
In a Feb. 28, 2013 email, more than three months before the board approved the GAB’s involvement, Falk told Robles that “things are really heating up here.â€
“Kevin (Kennedy) and Jon (Becker) would like a status on what is happening with Badger Doe and update you on a communication Kevin had with the IRS,†Falk wrote.
Kennedy, as we have learned in recent months, is a longtime “personal friend†of former IRS tax-exempt director Lois Lerner, who led the IRS division accused of targeting conservative groups seeking 501(c)(4) nonprofit status.
The Wall Street Journal in July reported that John Doe investigators asked the IRS to look into a conservative group that was a primary target of the probe.
Asked about Kennedy’s recent public statements on the GAB’s conduct, O’Keefe said he has a few questions for Kennedy. He emailed the following questions he would like the GAB director to answer:
1.Will you join me in calling for the unsealing of my filings in the Waukesha County case? Your attorneys have insisted on redactions of numerous pages disclosing the behavior of GAB employees in this “investigation.†What are you hiding?
2. If citizens violate Wisconsin’s campaign laws, should the GAB engage in secret raids on their homes with other law enforcement agencies? If so, where does the restriction on GAB’s involvement in criminal prosecutions end? Where should private citizens assume the GAB’s long arm is not allowed to reach? (Court documents show a GAB agent filed the affidavits for probable cause in the subpoenas used in predawn, paramilitary-style raids on the homes of several conservative targets.)
3. Are you disappointed that not a single court has agreed with your theories and therefore allowed the private citizens you targeted to resume their lives, or are you comfortable accepting the decisions and celebrating the liberties the courts have upheld? Is the GAB a better arbiter of campaign laws than courts?
4. Are you angry at the citizens you targeted? Is it appropriate for former GAB staffers (Falk) to speak disparagingly of the innocent citizens they targeted? If not, did they hold the same views when they worked at the GAB and why was that tolerated?
5. Emails have been obtained that make clear you have a long history of collaborating with Lois Lerner. Would emails or other communications indicate that you also collaborate with former Chief Justice (Shirley) Abrahamson?
O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth have filed an open records request with Abrahamson seeking information about her involvement in the John Doe investigation. The justice has yet to turn over any documents and has hired an attorney to defend her in the matter.
It was, according to court documents, Abrahamson who appointed reserve judge Barbara Kluka to serve as the probe’s presiding judge. Kluka suddenly recused herself in October 2013, not long after signing off on the warrants and subpoenas that fathered the raids and the seizure of millions of documents. Those subpoenas were eventually quashed by Kluka’s successor, who found no evidence of illegal activity on the part of the targets.
ACCOUNTABILITY SPIN: Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board, Wisconsin’s political speech regulator, has offered accounts of the GAB’s conduct in a secret political investigation that appear to be at odds with the record.
Kevin Kennedy scrambles and obfuscates to save his job.
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
If Lois Lerner was involved, the State of Wisconsin can prosecute her for her crimes related to this case. The Obama DoJ can’t protect her for crimes committed against the State of Wisconsin.
If Lois Lerner was involved, the State of Wisconsin can prosecute her for her crimes related to this case. The Obama DoJ can’t protect her for crimes committed against the State of Wisconsin.
If Lois Lerner was involved, the State of Wisconsin can prosecute her for her crimes related to this case. The Obama DoJ can’t protect her for crimes committed against the State of Wisconsin.
If Lois Lerner was involved, the State of Wisconsin can prosecute her for her crimes related to this case. The Obama DoJ can’t protect her for crimes committed against the State of Wisconsin.
If Lois Lerner was involved, the State of Wisconsin can prosecute her for her crimes related to this case. The Obama DoJ can’t protect her for crimes committed against the State of Wisconsin.
I hope somebody goes after the disgraced Lois Lerner.
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