We’ve covered the abusive anti-conservative Wisconsin “John Doe” proceedings many times before.
The short story is that two separate proceedings were commenced under the auspices of Democratic District Attorneys in order to try to take down Scott Walker.
John Doe No. 1 concerned Walker’s time as County Executive and ended without finding any wrongdoing by Walker himself.
John Doe No. 2 concerned Walker’s time as Governor and recall election. Both a state court judge and a federal judge found that even if everything the investigators claimed was true, it was not illegal. This John Doe No. 2 resulted in a federal lawsuit by two of the targets alleging that the investigators violated the targets’ constitutional rights.
Some documents released Friday by the federal Court of Appeals reveal just how abusive this John Doe No. 2 was.
The investigators conducted a widespread fishing expedition through the otherwise private records of numerous conservative activists, as described by M.D. Kittle of Wisconsin Reporter, who has followed the case more closely than anyone (h/t Instapundit):
‘Retaliation’: Docs show state prosecutors’ launched mini-NSA probe of state conservatives
Conservative targets of a Democrat-launched John Doe investigation have described the secret probe as a witch hunt.That might not be a big enough descriptor, based on records released Friday by a federal appeals court as part of a massive document dump.Attorneys for conservative activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth point to subpoenas requested by John Doe prosecutors that sought records from “at least eight phone companies” believed to serve the targets of the investigation. O’Keefe and the club have filed a civil rights lawsuit against John Doe prosecutors, alleging they violated conservatives’ First Amendment rights.Subpoenas also demanded the conservatives’ bank records, “emails from every major private email provider” and other information in what some have described as a mini-NSA (National Security Agency) operation in Wisconsin.“In fact, Defendants’ submissions confirm and expand upon the scope and intensity of retaliation previously demonstrated,” O’Keefe’s attorney wrote in documents ordered unsealed by the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.The documents raise serious concerns about the tactics of Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, two of his assistant DAs and others involved in the investigation targeting dozens of conservatives.
We are in a dangerous place when prosecutors can identify the target first, and then try to find a crime.
Hey Wisconsin conservatives. You’re not paranoid, Democrats really are out to get you.
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