Judges defend John Doe probe of Walker
Eleven sign statement saying investigation followed law of the time
MADISON - Former judges who sat on the Government Accountability Board defended their work Friday, saying they were following wellestablished law when they investigated Gov. Scott Walker for possible campaign finance violations.
In a lengthy statement, the 11 judges said the state Supreme Court adopted a new interpretation of campaign finance law when it shut down what was known as John Doe II in 2015 and found Walker and conservative groups backing him had done nothing illegal.
“Local prosecutors presented information to the GAB indicating possible violations of state ethics and campaign finance laws which the GAB had a legal duty to investigate,” the judges said.
“The settled law at that time, affirmed by Wisconsin court decisions and past opinions of both the GAB and its predecessor Elections Board, was that expenditures and activities by outside groups undertaken in coordination with candidate campaign committees were deemed to be political contributions subject to the limitations and reporting requirements of Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws. The Wisconsin Supreme Court decision that ultimately terminated the second John Doe investigation significantly altered previous interpretations of the laws in question.”
The accountability board was a panel of six former judges that for eight years was in charge of the state’s ethics and elections laws. Walker and the Legislature dissolved the agency after the state Supreme Court ruling and replaced it with two bipartisan commissions.
The accountability board assisted Democratic Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm with his investigation into whether Walker’s campaign illegally worked with conservative groups in recall elections in 2011 and 2012. It was conducted in secret under the John Doe law, which allowed Chisholm to compel targets and witnesses to produce documents.
The investigation was known as John Doe II because it followed an earlier John Doe probe of Walker’s aides and associates that resulted in six convictions.
GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel is now seeking contempt-of-court findings for nine officials, including former staff for the accountability board, because of how they handled secret material. Brown County Circuit Judge Kendall Kelley is weighing that request and asked attorneys this week to file briefs on whether he has the power to take any action in the case.
At the behest of Republican senators, Schimel is continuing his investigation of the accountability board.
“As former members of the GAB, we are proud of the work we did and of the people who worked for us,” the judges said in their statement. “We welcome a fair and honest review of that work that is free of political considerations. We hope and trust that the recently authorized attorney general’s investigation of the GAB’s activities will be such a review.”
Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos said he could not say anything about Friday’s statement because of “an ongoing, active criminal investigation into the activities of the former GAB and its staff.”
Friday’s statement was issued by 11 of the 14 former judges who sat on the accountability board at various stages of the probe: Thomas Barland, Michael Brennan, Thomas Cane, David Deininger, William Eich, Elsa Lamelas, Edward Leineweber, Victor Manian, Gordon Myse, Gerald Nichol and Timothy Vocke. As judges and members of the accountability board, they were officially nonpartisan, but some of them have partisan pasts. For instance, Deininger and Barland served as Republicans in the state Assembly and Vocke served as a Democrat when he was Vilas County district attorney.
The three who did not sign were John Franke, Harold Froehlich and James Mohr.
Deininger said Froehlich, a former Republican member of Congress, declined to sign the statement and the other two couldn’t be reached by the time the statement was issued.