WI “John Doe” target seeks criminal investigation of prosecutors
October 02, 2014
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We've covered the Wisconsin "John Doe" proceeding targeting Governor Scott Walker and dozens of conservative Wisconsin activists many times before. Scroll through the John Doe (WI) tag.
The legal short version is that Milwaukee County prosecutor John Chisholm has been on a years-long investigation of Scott Walker and the conservative movement, claiming there was illegal coordination. A state court judge effectively shut down the investigation finding that there was no legal basis for that claim. A federal district court judge made a similar finding, but that finding was reversed by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals mainly on procedural grounds -- that federal courts should not interfere in state court proceedings, finding that the Supreme Court had not yet definitively ruled on whether the alleged conduct at issue, so-called "issues advocacy," could be regulated.
The political short version is that the John Doe investigation, which seized records before it was shut down, chilled and stifled conservative speech in Wisconsin. The John Doe investigation also has become a political hammer over Scott Walkers' head, used by his political enemies to try to defeat him at the ballot box. One of those political enemies of Walker, according to a whistleblower who used to work in Chisholm's office and was friendly with his family, was Chisholm's wife, a school system union representative furious at Walker's collective bargaining reform.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel outed the whistleblower, and has been attacking him as untrustworthy, as the Journal Sentinel calls for the the investigation to continue.
Now one of the main targets of the John Doe case, and one of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, has fired back at the prosecutors by demanding a criminal investigation of the prosecutors' alleged political motivations. (Embedded at bottom of post.)
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on September 29, John Doe target strikes back with call for probe of prosecutor: