Some John Doe targets not told of seized emails

Name release triggers debate on rules, ethics

MADISON - Prosecutors who seized material in secret probes into Wisconsin Republicans still haven’t notified some of those people about what was taken from them years ago.

In 2015, the state Supreme Court ordered prosecutors to notify some of those under scrutiny that authorities had seized their emails, chats and other electronic documents.

But some Republicans didn’t learn that their materials had been taken until Attorney General Brad Schimel released their names last week as part of his report on the John Doe probes, according to interviews with multiple people affected.

Schimel’s report focused on the leak of secret John Doe records to the Guardian U.S. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) on Tuesday called for Schimel to broaden his review to find out more about the John Doe investigations and the operations of the now-disbanded Government Accountability Board.

Even now — more than six years after some of the search warrants were executed — some people still don’t know what material was taken.

“I never got any notification whatsoever,” one of the Republicans said. “To me, it’s a little creepy. I don’t know how much of my (email) is sitting in boxes now.”

State senator and U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir (R-Brookfiedl) has said publicly that she didn’t know her emails were taken by prosecutors until Schimel’s report was published. On Tuesday, she said she was considering her legal options and wanted to see people put behind bars over how the investigations were conducted.

On Monday, Jefferson County Circuit Judge William Hue said he should not have allowed Schimel to release the names of GOP aides and operatives because prosecutors and ethics officials did not pursue ethics charges against them in their investigation into potential campaigning on state time.

Schimel also did not notify the 35 Republicans that he would be releasing their names, in some cases for the first

time.

Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos defended his decision, saying it was not him but the original prosecutors who were required both to notify these Republicans and keep their identities confidential. Koremenos also said the Republicans in question were not necessarily targets of the probes.

There were two secret John Doe probes. The first began by looking at aides and associates of then-Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and expanded to look at potential campaigning by public employees at taxpayer expense. The second John Doe probe looked at Walker’s campaign after he had become governor.

For his part, special prosecutor Francis Schmitz said Tuesday that he was required by the state Supreme Court to alert people whose material had been taken as part of the second John Doe. Schimel has said the material in question arose as part of the first John Doe.

“Campaigning on state time was not part of the John Doe investigation I led,” Schmitz said. “I believe I notified all entities and individuals I was required to.”

In December 2015, the state Supreme Court ruled 4-1 that Schmitz had to notify anyone whose material had been taken “in the course of the John Doe II investigation or were obtained in the course of the John Doe I investigation and were authorized to be used in the John Doe II investigation.” In its decision, the court also ordered Schmitz to turn all those materials over to the state Supreme Court.

The emails and chat logs in question were gathered in John Doe I but were not transferred to John Doe II. Instead, they were passed onto the accountability board, which at the time oversaw the state’s ethics laws.

The issue is complicated, however, by the fact that the accountability board also assisted in the second John Doe. The accountability board has since been dissolved and replaced by two new commissions.

Koremenos said that Schmitz should have notified anyone he knew about whose records had been seized.

Schmitz said he was not familiar with the evidence gathered as a part of John Doe I that looked into campaigning on taxpayer time.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who ran John Doe I and assisted with John Doe II, said by email he could not discuss the issue of notification because of a state law that makes it a crime for prosecutors to violate John Doe secrecy orders.

“I am still subject to the secrecy orders in all previous John Doe investigations, as is any other law enforcement or judicial entity unless specifically authorized to disclose and only if they received prior authorization from the persons who were disclosed,” Chisholm said by email.

At a luncheon hosted by WisPolitics.com, Vukmir on Tuesday expressed frustration over the investigation for taking her email, including 150 personal exchanges between Vukmir and her daughter.

“I’d like to see people definitely lose their jobs over this,” Vukmir said. “I believe that some of the things that happened, people should go to jail for this.”

In interviews, some Republicans said they had received letters from Schmitz but others said they had not. Some learned through other means that their materials had been taken and some didn’t learn until last week.

Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.