From political witch hunt to political whitewash, in a few, smeary brush strokes: The conservative majority on Wisconsin's Supreme Court just issued another have-it-both ways ruling on the suspended John Doe inquiry into suspected collusion among Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and supposedly independent, third-party conservative groups.
They refuse to sanction any legally constituted and formal panels of criminal inquiry that might look at their political pals; but they do want to do everything possible, including approval of dark-money contribution schemes, to keep secret any political dirty laundry that may already have come to the attention of the state’s duly appointed law officers.
If you’re an ordinary Wisconsin resident who signed a 2012 recall petition against Gov. Scott Walker, that act has been shared widely by conservatives, in a searchable online database complete with a scan of the page you signed, just in case you might be applying for a job somewhere. Open records law, don’t you know! But if the governor or other elected officials — who in the present case oppose open records for themselves -- directed supposedly independent campaign organizations in violation of state law, why, the court will simply and retroactively kill that law by reinterpreting it, however clumsily, and killing the messenger while they’re at it.
Your secrets: open book. Their secrets: closed subject.
In Wisconsin, the John Doe process served for many decades in place of the grand jury proceeding more typically used in most states. The Doe law gives prosecutors power to compel testimony and subpoena documents, while barring targets from discussing the matter with anyone but their attorneys, all in the cause of preventing collusion among suspects while protecting the innocent.
When by decree it killed the Doe inquiry into Walker's campaign back in July, the state's highest court ruled that Special Prosecutor Francis Schmitz was improperly appointed to oversee the investigation, and ordered him to stop working on the case. But yesterday, turning down Schmitz's appeal of the earlier ruling, the court also ordered Schmitz to gather all the evidence collected to date and turn it over to the court, where it apparently will remain sealed from public scrutiny.
In doing that, the court modified its earlier ruling that ordered the destruction of all evidence prosecutors had collected. The conservative justices apparently realized their "destroy all monsters" edict was way over the top, legally. But wait, there's more! As of yesterday, Schmitz must also notify within 30 days every person and organization whose documents were collected.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported: "Wednesday's order requires Schmitz to compile an index of the records that were seized, including more than a million emails. That summary of the evidence will likely be sealed, as many of the documents stemming from the probe have been." See: www.jsonline.com/...
A million emails in 30 days? Hey, it took many months for litigants to obtain some few thousands of Scott Walker emails in response to open records requests. And many dayss more for a large, loose-knit team of journalists and citizens to pore over and catalog those emails. And Schmitz has to do the million email march all by himself. Hey, but he's got nothing else on his plate, now, thanks to the Supremes.
Well, one other thing. Schmitz says he likely will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the state high court's rulings. In a statement, Schmitz said he had underestimated "the power and influence special interest groups have in Wisconsin politics," adding: "My career in the military and as a federal prosecutor fighting violent criminals and terrorists did not fully prepare me for the tactics employed by these special interest groups."
Wow. A Republican, former federal prosecutor who is either channeling controlled anger or at least is otherwise unafraid to compare combatant conservative political groups unfavorably to criminals and … terrorists.
In an email reported by the Wisconsin State Journal, Schmitz also said: "I continue to believe that the investigation was justified. The voters of Wisconsin have a right to know the identity of large donors, corporate and individual, which coordinate with campaign committees." See: host.madison.com/...
Follow me below the fold for more background on this unsurprising development and how it makes absolutely no sense -- unless, that is, you’re an activist, conservative justice on a high court who’s also into running a creative-writing class.