In my recent diary on the shocking ruling that it's just fine for dark money groups with anonymous donors to coordinate directly with campaigns, there were a lot of questions about how notorious RW Federal Judge Rudolph Randa got "assigned" the case.
Considering he's the same federal judge who recently got smacked down hard on his John Doe ruling, being assigned to a similar case just seemed incredibly stupid. With harsh words for Randa and those who brought the federal lawsuit, the 7th Circuit Court overturned Randas order shutting down the current John Doe Probe investigating illegal coordination between those groups and ordering evidence already collected be destroyed.
We now know exactly how it happened. Prepare to be disgusted.
When a conservative group filed a lawsuit over campaign finance laws earlier this month, they filled out court paperwork in a way that all but guaranteed they got a judge who has already ruled groups and candidates can work closely together.
The plan worked. On Tuesday, two weeks after Citizens for Responsible Government Advocates filed its suit, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa issued an order limiting how campaign finance laws could be enforced, opening the door for groups and candidates to team up in the weeks before the Nov. 4 election.
Normally, federal judges are randomly assigned to cases. But when CRG filed its lawsuit, it said its case was related to two others that Randa already had. By doing that, the case automatically went to Randa to determine if it should stay with him.
"This was artful to the point of manipulative," said Jeremy Levinson, a Democratic attorney who specializes in campaign finance laws.
It didn't seem to matter to the powers that be that Randas earlier decision, and others, had been overturned. The only thing that mattered, it seems, is that the cases "were related".
Just yuck!
But that's not all! In fact, it gets a lot more disgusting.
The suit was brought against Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and top officials with the Government Accountability Board, which enforces state campaign finance laws. Those are the same people who have been probing Walker's campaign.
GOP Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen declined to to represent the officials and it fell to Walker's office to appoint special counsel. Walker's chief counsel hired Daniel Kelly, of a two-lawyer office in Waukesha, to go up against one of the largest law firms in the country.
That's right, folks. Refuse to represent state officials in the lawsuit and dither appointing the smallest law firms you can find (more info on that law firm below), and Judge Randa only hears ONE SIDE of the case before he makes his decision (an extension requested by the 2 lawyer office was refused).
"Apparently Judge Randa is thumbing his nose at the 7th Circuit," Pines said. (Lester Pines is a well known Democratic attorney)
Randa issued his ruling Tuesday, even though Kelly had asked for more time to respond to the lawsuit because he had been hired only the day before. Pines said Walker's office should have hired an attorney more quickly because of a tight briefing schedule for the case, noting other lawyers have recently worked on cases involving the campaign finance laws that are being challenged.
And it gets even worse when you look at the 2 lawyer firm that got hired to represent the election overseers.
Walker's chief counsel hired Daniel Kelly, of a two-lawyer office in Waukesha, to go up against one of the largest law firms in the country.
Kelly, who has represented the campaigns of former Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green and state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, was picked even though other Wisconsin lawyers at larger firms had recently been victorious in another challenge to the same set of campaign finance laws.
Yup, for sure. Pick someone who represents Republican campaigns (who would actually BENEFIT from coordinating with dark money groups) to represent elections officials and go up against one of the biggest and best law firms in the country. In other words, the fox is guarding the henhouse.
The foul smell is strong with this one.
I've used a lot of blockquotes in this diary because otherwise you might think this twisted tale of manipulation and outright chicanery came from "The Onion". It didn't. It's the very sad truth about how the RW will win at any cost. Shame doesn't even factor in.
It's a disgusting tale and Friday News Dump. They hope the public doesn't know that these are the depths to which Scott Walker and the Republicans will sink to have it their way, every day.
Solidarity.
.