Posted on 10/15/2015 6:31:05 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Part 262 of 260 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War
MADISON, Wisconsin — Lost in the heated rhetoric of this week’s legislative hearing on a bill to overhaul the state Government Accountability Board (See: Joseph Welch impersonations), was an important question the GAB’s director has yet to adequately answer.
State Sen. Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon, still wants to know why the state’s election, campaign finance and lobbying law regulator used Gmail accounts to communicate about the secret John Doe investigation.
“I find it very concerning that the GAB, which is charged with ethics and things related to open records, used Gmail accounts,” Craig told Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the agency, during the tense Joint Campaigns and Elections Committee hearing.
“Why didn’t GAB use a state account?” Craig asked.
Kennedy said the agency was told to “segregate those accounts.” He didn’t specify who gave the orders, but we now know the GAB set up the email to correspond with the Milwaukee County District Attorneys office and others in the unconstitutional probe into dozens of conservative groups and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker.
That information first came to light in December, when conservative targets suing the GAB on allegations of misconduct were allowed by the court to release previously sealed information obtained through discovery.
GAB leadership warned of the potential that any communications related to the politically driven probe could be made public.
“(T)eam members should communicate with the understanding that their communications could become public or subject to discovery at some point,” stated a document from an August 2013 GAB closed-door meeting.
RELATED: Explosive email exposes GAB attorney’s partisan motives in John Doe probe (see link below)
Kennedy, in responding to an open records request from Craig’s office, insisted the emails were secure.
But the lawmaker said the state Legislative Technology Services Bureau told his office that virtually under no circumstances are Gmail or independent email accounts more secure than those connected to the state servers.
The state Department of Justice said the same, according to Craig.
Craig said the use of the accounts raise serious questions about security of documents that were supposed to remain secret under law, and the judgment of GAB leadership.
“This is negligence,” the lawmaker said in an interview with Wisconsin Watchdog.
Asked at the hearing whether he knew the Gmail accounts had been compromised, Kennedy responded he was not aware of any of the accounts being hacked.
Beyond the serious questions of transparency at the agency with “accountability” in its name, is the fact that, according to court records, John Doe investigators seized some six millions of documents. Much of those records include personal information of people never charged with any wrongdoing — People who were terribly wronged by the lengthy investigation, according to the majority opinion in a Supreme Court ruling that declared the probe unconstitutional and ordered it shut down.
Interestingly, one of the reasons Kennedy cited for the GAB’s use of Gmail accounts was that some of the targets of the probe, perhaps up to the governor, might have access to GAB state emails and start snooping around.
“Part of our investigation focused on people who had access to those accounts,” Kennedy said at the hearing, adding that he couldn’t be sure certain employees at the state Department of Administration “wouldn’t have an interest in what we looked at.”
Craig said the Department of Justice told him the state has protocols in place that prevent other agencies or employees to nose around protected email communications. He added that DOJ is expected to release a formalized letter to the lawmaker’s office this week spelling out those policies.
A Justice Department spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
“It’s such a sloppy practice,” Craig said of the GAB’s use of Gmail accounts in an interview Wednesday with Wisconsin Watchdog.
The lawmaker said he wants to renew his push to hold legislative investigations into the accountability board, with a committee that would be equipped with subpoena power.
He said he finds it interesting that all of the critics of the so-called “secret email system” and the reported use of Gmail accounts among Walker’s staff when he was Milwaukee County executive have remained silent on the GAB’s use of the commercial emails for its political probe.
Craig said he can’t think of any difference between the two government agencies and their use of private accounts.
“I would draw basically an exact parallel to the very thing that was investigated” in Milwaukee County, he said. “Unfortunately, without using our subpoena power we wouldn’t be able to find out what’s on that GAB Gmail account.”
Meanwhile, several Republican lawmakers have sent a letter to Attorney General Brad Schimel asking his agency to investigate possible open meetings violations by the GAB.
The request came in response to GAB chairman Gerald Nichol’s testimony Tuesday in which he described a fairly informal and regular communication process between himself and Kennedy. GOP lawmakers believe such a practice could result in a “walking quorum,” where decisions that should be made in public are done so in private.
“As legislators and committee chairs, we are acutely aware of the Wisconsin Open Meetings law and the concept of a walking quorum. Although not defined in statute, the Wisconsin Legislative Council has defined a ‘walking quorum as:
“A series of discussions between small numbers of a governmental body’s members, with the implied or expressed agreement to act uniformly in a sufficient number to reach a quorum,” the letter states.
“GAB chair Nichol’s comments raise serious questions as to whether or not the GAB violated the Open Meetings law and warrant further scrutiny.”
GAB GMAILS: State Rep. Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon, grilled GAB director Kevin Kennedy at a hearing Tuesday on the agency’s use of gmail accounts to secretly communicate about the political John Doe probe.
RELATED: Explosive email exposes GAB attorney’s partisan motives in John Doe probe
Dave Craig questions GAB use of private Gmail accounts to discuss GAB investigations. (Takes them off the record — walking quorum also discussed here.)
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Can’t wait for these scumbags go to prison...
O’Wait...these are democrats...never mind...
Offhand, I’d say the reason was to escape accountability.
Much in the same manner as Hillary!.
Cortana did it...
According to Hillary’s law, they were required to set up a private server in their bathroom.
“As legislators and committee chairs, we are acutely aware of the Wisconsin Open Meetings law and the concept of a walking quorum. Although not defined in statute, the Wisconsin Legislative Council has defined a ‘walking quorum as:“A series of discussions between small numbers of a governmental body’s members, with the implied or expressed agreement to act uniformly in a sufficient number to reach a quorum,” the letter states.
It's interesting that walking quorum is not "codified" in WI law. I remember when the Plan Commission of my municipality was convicted by a jury of doing that. I think the had to pay a fine, but it was about 20 years ago, so I don't really remember. All I know is that when that regime (Repubs) was in office, no more than 3 of them could attend a social engagement at any one time. Now that the opposition (Dems) is in power, they regularly gather for drinks at a local pub after every meeting and nobody says anything.
GAB is vastly more corrupt than anything they were supposedly investigating.
Interesting...
Were they free or paid accounts, the EULA (User license) for a standard free account allows Google to read your mail, and no I am not kidding...
Not sure about the paid version...
Whats more as their e-mail is a Core service they spend ton$ keeping it available and backed up....
Replicated...
So if they were using Google all the mails they sent and received are there...
Depends on their archive management strategy how far but still a place to look...
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