Free Republic

An effort to investigate Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's political fundraising during his 2012 recall election cost Badger State voters $1.1 million, recently released court documents show. The investigation was halted last year after a judge determined that the activities alleged in the probe were not in fact illegal. The figures may grow higher. At least seven lawsuits relating to the "John Doe" probe, a secret investigative procedure available to state prosecutors, have been filed and litigation remains ongoing, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Patrick Marley. The Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the targets of the probe, has appealed...

MADISON, Wis. — Eric O’Keefe [2] has a message for the prosecutors who have targeted him and dozens of conservative groups in a politically charged John Doe investigation [3]: Drop the probe now or become defendants in a federal civil rights lawsuit.O’Keefe, director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, [4] a limited government advocacy organization targeted for alleged illegal “coordination” with Gov. Scott Walker’s [5] campaign during the state’s recall elections, in a statement that the investigation is “political payback by elected prosecutors against conservative activists for their political successes in Wisconsin.”“They are violating the constitutional rights of private citizens...