Today on The BradCast, startling revelations from the massive document dump of emails and other materials from the currently-quashed state criminal investigation into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s 2012 recall election fundraising. [Audio link to show posted below.]
The Guardian’s remarkable 1,300 page leak of documents from the so-called “John Doe investigation” of Walker’s illegal collusion with “independent” third-party non-profit groups is, in many ways, jaw-dropping. As we discuss on today’s show, in addition to that collusion, the leaked emails also reveal state GOP operatives preparing to declare massive Democratic voter fraud, without a shred of evidence in support, in order to try and win a very close 2011 election for state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser. The rightwing Justice would ultimately ensure a Walker-friendly majority on the court to support the Governor’s controversial union-busting law.
“Do we need to start messaging ‘widespread reports of election fraud’ so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the final number? I obviously think we should,” writes one of the GOP operatives in one of the emails as results from the tight race came in. “Talk radio needs to scream the Dems are trying to steal the race…We need to declare victory first so it appears that the results are being overturned if they go the wrong way.” Sound familiar?
[You can see what came of that recount, which we covered extensively back in 2011, including exclusives revealing, among other irregularities, ballot bags ripped and discovered “wide open” with mismatched or missing serial numbers as well as ballots found completely unsecured and other similar messes and mistallies across the state. My 2011 interview with Prosser’s challenger, then Asst. Attorney General Joanne Kloppenburg, after she was ultimately forced to concede, thanks in no small part to the dishonest scheming applied by the operatives cited above, is right here.]Attorney Brendan Fischer, Associate Counsel at the Campaign Legal Center in D.C., joins us to help unpack the breathtaking smoking guns revealed by these newly-disclosed documents, after the state’s probe of Walker was shut down by the very same elected Justices on the state Supreme Court whose elections were funded by the exact same corporate millionaire and billionaire donors and illegal mechanisms revealed by the quashed documents. Yes, it makes my head spin too.
“These documents show the breadth of the coordination scheme that Walker was engaged in,” Fischer tells me. “It shows that what the Republican and Democratic prosecutors in Wisconsin were looking into with this investigation was really significant. It was a broad scheme to evade the state’s corporate contribution limits and disclosure requirements. And that was very explicit. The purpose of Walker coordinating was to evade disclosure laws, to allow corporations and controversial donors to support Walkers’ re-election without any sort of public disclosure or public accountability. That was not a bug in this coordination scheme, that was the purpose from the beginning. And the emails show that very clearly.”
You really need to listen to today’s show to get the full picture of what happened, and how this scheme has served as a template for GOP elections all over the country now (including the very same donors behind Donald Trump’s campaign and, indeed, as we learn, including Trump himself who gave money to the “independent” Wisconsin Club for Growth on the very same day he met with Walker in NYC.) Fischer also describes, for example, the lead paint manufacturer who secretly donated $750,000 to the tax-exempt, non-profit “social welfare” group before state Republicans slipped in a provision to a budget bill that granted immunity to his company in the face of lawsuits from hundreds of children poisoned by the paint. “The public was unable to connect the dots between the secret three-quarters of a million dollar contributions to Wisconsin Club for Growth and the later policy decisions that Walker took” on behalf of the donor, explains Fischer.
“Bigger picture, this is one of those rare snapshots into how ‘dark money’ works,” he says. “When you look at these documents, the two [Walker and WCfG] are interchangeable. This was not an instance where Walker’s campaign had a few conversations here and there with Wisconsin Club for Growth Officials…Wisconsin Club for Growth was an arm of the Walker campaign.”
Fischer also goes on to explain what we might expect as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a motion that could re-open the state’s criminal probe later this month. Even if I say so myself, it’s a must-listen BradCast today…
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[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/BradCast_BradFriedman_BrendanFischer_WIWalkerJohnDoeDocs_091516.mp3]
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There’s an additional issue that these emails expose. It excplains why WI prosecutors were forced to redact major portions of their U.S. Supreme Court petition for cert.
As Rick Hasen observed last April:
Hasen opined there are “meaty issues.” 1. Whether the WI Supreme Court “mangled U.S. constitutional campaign finance law to let elected officials like Gov. Scott Walker coordinate with outside groups on an unlimited basis.” 2. Whether those Justices on the WI Supreme Court who benefited from the outside spending…should have recused themselves…The number of redactions involving the actions of controversial Supreme Court Judge David Prosser are remarkable in and of themselves.”
What The Guardian accomplished was to expose the corrupt actions that Prosser and his rightwing WI Supreme Court colleagues sought to conceal.
The “John Doe” case now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court is Chisholm v. Two Unnamed Petitioners.
In July, The Brennan Center For Justice, along with the Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause filed an amicus brief urging that the Supreme Court grant cert.
The amicus brief argues that the WI Supremes, contrary to prior U.S. Supreme Court decisions, eviscerated contribution limits and disclosure protections. The brief also argues that cert should be granted because WI Justices Prosser* and Gableman failed to recuse themselves.
The brief specifically contends, and it appears the emails now show, that Prosser and Gableman “received significant financial support from the litigants in the case and had a personal stake in the outcome.” Indeed, the two Justices “appear to have had ‘significant, personal involvement in the case by virtue of their relationships, communications, and possible coordination with the subjects of the criminal investigation.”
Thus, it is not just the governor but two Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices who could ultimately be the targets of a criminal prosecution should the U.S. Supreme Court reinstate the John Doe investigation.
Prosser, by way of a July 29, 2015 letter denied a formal motion filed by Special Prosecutor Francis D. Schmitz that he recuse himself. In his letter, Prosser described “communications supporting [his] campaign” that were “significant and disproportionate.” Prosser, who admitted that these contributions far exceeded the amounts his campaign could directly accept, insisted that these were “independent” contributions.
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Responsible, stunning journalism!
I don’t donate the BradBlog. I donate TO the BradBlog. 🙂
Thank you, Larry. Much.
Brad:
When it stops coming, you’ll know I’m dead or dead broke. I hope neither happens soon.
I have no love of Scott Walker. By all means crash and burn. I think it’s horrible the political war he made on the Union awhile back. I don’t like a piece of crap no matter where they are. Plus nobody has anythign on me. hahahaha so you can not sway me. You can LIE to me and I will be mis-directed only. I hate pieces of shit where they lay R or D.
I cringe when I see primary source DNC* dumps and the significance of it all being ignored, did you not see all the people exit the Democratic party?
I mean you had two chances now, the drama show by FBI Comme flushing the rule of law, and now the gucifer2 hack leaks. I know most true donkeys (the Kennedy-ish ones not the fake ones) are having a hard time keeping all this straight in their poor heads right now, with Israel, Syria, Palestine and Ukrane and Iraq and well I better stop. Go listen to people you hate once in awhile, listen to stuff YOU DON’T WANT TO HEAR, if you want to learn the truth. Cause google will be happy to give you exactly what your looking for be it donkies or elephants.
I don’t think you HAVE a democratic party is what I am trying to say here, you have a skeleton being propped up.
I think we all left. (haha a pun “We LeFT” )
I heard trout the grapevine new democratic party is the NPP, that’s all I know. There’s likely stragglers trying to figure out their place in the universe. Kind of hard to get polling when one want’s to be forgotten into the crowd. Kind of like the BS gun statistics, yeah like home owners are going to tell you they got guns. Hahahaha don’t make me laugh, all gun statistics like that are CRAP. Who is going to tell you that information? Maybe 20 years ago in Maybery. Not in 2016.
I don’t call myself Trump-o-crat. I don’t worship him, go read hedgeless_horseman’s questions for trump. I think HH’s questions are a great start. But I would ask other stuff. I already did here
I currently will vote trump even if it has to be hand written in. I don’t feel like listening to the fucking woodpecker numbers stations all coming back all at the same time with a great big bubble rising up over humanity shortly followin.
winds at 850-1200 and sun with 7000 degrees in the shade
It’s treason that’s brought us to this point. Trump didn’t commit treason.
Party: NPP