Apparently John Doe investigation 2 is hitting a nerve or two. Courtesy of the infamous Wall Street Journal:
In recent weeks, special prosecutor Francis Schmitz has hit dozens of conservative groups with subpoenas demanding documents related to the 2011 and 2012 campaigns to recall Governor Walker and state legislative leaders.
Copies of two subpoenas we've seen demand "all memoranda, email . . . correspondence, and communications" both internally and between the subpoena target and some 29 conservative groups, including Wisconsin and national nonprofits, political vendors and party committees. The groups include the League of American Voters, Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Americans for Prosperity—Wisconsin, American Crossroads, the Republican Governors Association, Friends of Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
Holy ####.
Let's run through that list again.
Club for Growth - (Hey, maybe we can leave these guys alone, they're doing us so much good, supporting Tea Partiers & starting the GOP civil war.)
League of American Voters - The League of American Voters (LAV)... that runs ad campaigns that reinforce key policy objectives of corporations and the right-wing politicians they back in the U.S. "
Wisconsin Family Action - Wisconsin's homegrown "every sperm is sacred" homo-haters. Anti-abortion, anti-contraception... need I say more?
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce - State chapter of the Chamber of Commerce. Major funders of state republican party.
Americans for Prosperity. The Koch Brothers.
American Crossroads. Karl Rove.
Republican Governors Association - Ha ha.
Friends of Scott Walker - Scott Walker's campaign organization.
Republican Party of Wisconsin - Ha ha.
My Scottenfreude runneth over.
But one target who did confirm receiving a subpoena is Eric O'Keefe, who realizes the personal risk but wants the public to know what is going on. Mr. O'Keefe is director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth...
Mr. O'Keefe says he received his subpoena in early October. He adds that at least three of the targets had their homes raided at dawn, with law-enforcement officers turning over belongings to seize computers and files.
Homes raided at dawn?
The WSJ is all over itself calling this a partisan political vendetta. What they don't say is that the John Doe prosecutor, Francis Schmitz, is no partisan Democrat:
In choosing Schmitz, officials may be hoping to avoid the charges of partisanship that were leveled against Chisholm, a Democrat, for his office's lengthy probe of the Republican governor's former associates. It does not appear that Schmitz or Kluka signed the recall petitions.
"Fran makes all the sense in the world," said one veteran Milwaukee attorney.
Schmitz is a highly regarded career prosecutor who was one of three finalists recommended to then-President George W. Bush for the U.S. attorney's post in 2001.
Oh. Yeah. They WSJ may be right on one thing. Wisconsin state law authorizes the appointment of a special prosecutor when the district attorney feels there may be a conflict of interest. The special prosecutor's a republican. He may have been appointed to avoid charges of partisanship.
The WSJ says what they might be afraid of:
The subpoenas don't spell out a specific allegation, but the demands suggest the government may be pursuing a theory of illegal campaign coordination by independent groups during the recall elections. If prosecutors are pursuing a theory that independent conservative groups coordinated with candidate campaigns during the recall, their goal may be to transform the independent expenditures into candidate committees after the fact, requiring revision of campaign-finance disclosures and possible criminal charges.
An investigation of RW groups coordinating with candidate campaigns. "Independent" expenditures aren't really independent. I don't know about you, but I'm shocked, shocked. /snark
I like this paragraph saying who else is involved in the John Doe probe and these subpoenas:
the warrants were executed based on the request of Dean Nickel, who filed an affidavit for probable cause. Mr. Nickel is a former head of the Wisconsin Department of Justice Public Integrity Unit and has worked as an investigator for the GAB (my addition - GAB = Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections in Wisconsin). Mr. Nickel told us he is a contractor for the GAB but wouldn't discuss the John Doe probe.
We've had some funky sh*t go down here in the Dairyland in the last two years, and it's not coming from our cows. Money, mailings, groups focused on intimidation... since I'm looking at this as a "breaking" story I don't have time for analysis, but the pieces are falling into place.
We've had two years of political hell here in Wisconsin. We've fought the fight, have lost most, have won some. I've had my hopes up before. But if Wisconsin could be the instrument that brings down this national right wing cabal, I'll call it even.