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Lawmakers want answers on GAB director Kevin Kennedy’s IRS conversations
Wisconsiin Watchdog ^ | 10-26-15 | M. D. Kittle

Posted on 10/26/2015 9:22:25 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

Part 271 of 269 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War

MADISON, Wisconsin — The authors of a bill reforming Wisconsin’s controversial John Doe law want answers from state Government Accountability Board director Kevin Kennedy about his conversations with the Internal Revenue Service regarding a now-dead, political John Doe probe.

State Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and state Rep. Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon, are particularly interested in an email from former GAB staff counsel Shane Falk to Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney David Robles.

In the Feb. 28, 2013, communication, Falk tells Robles:

“As you may know, things are really heating up here. Kevin (Kennedy) and Jon (Becker, GAB Ethics Division administrator) would like a status on what is happening with Badger Doe and update you on a communication Kevin had with the IRS.”

The email is included in 182 pages of court documents related to a lawsuit against the GAB. Those documents, issued late Thursday, although highly redacted detail the agency’s involvement in an investigation declared unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court.

In light of Falk’s email, sent in the heat of the political probe into dozens of conservative groups and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker, Tiffany and Craig have asked Kennedy to reveal what his communications to the IRS involved.

“In the name of open and transparent government, the people of Wisconsin deserve to know, especially when Mr. Kennedy says he is a personal friend of Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division accused of targeting conservative groups seeking nonprofit status.”

Kennedy, as we have learned in recent months, is a longtime “personal friend” of former IRS tax-exempt director Lerner, who led the IRS division accused of targeting conservative groups seeking 501(c)(4) nonprofit status.

The Wall Street Journal in July reported that John Doe investigators asked the IRS to look into a conservative group that was a primary target of the probe.

Asked during a legislative hearing about his relationship with Lerner, Kennedy sounded indignant.

“Seriously? Have you no decency?” Kennedy sharply responded to Republican state Sen. Chris Kapenga’s question. “That’s a question right out of Joseph McCarthy,” Kennedy said, his voice rising and cracking with anger.

Tiffany, in an interview Monday with Wisconsin Watchdog, said such charges of McCarthyism often come from people who want to “squelch debate.”

That certainly has been the charge by conservatives against the rogue GAB concerning its integral involvement in a secret probe that has frozen right-of-center political speech in Wisconsin for several years.

“I believe that’s what Kevin Kennedy is doing (with his allusions to Cold War era Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy). He’s trying to shut off debate by emphasizing McCarthyism,” Tiffany said.

As of Monday morning, Tiffany said Kennedy had not responded to his request. GAB spokesman Reid Magney also did not respond to a request for comment from Wisconsin Watchdog.

“I do hope that Kevin Kennedy will share the communications,” Tiffany said. “I think it’s very much in the public domain, and I think the people in the state of Wisconsin really would like to know what a state government official was doing communicating with a federal government official like Lois Lerner.”

He said the fact Lerner refused to testify about her activities before a congressional committee “really heightens the public’s interest of why our top official overseeing elections in Wisconsin … would be communicating with Lois Lerner.”

“Obviously Shane Falk thought those communications were important for other people to know about,” Tiffany said.

Walker signed the John Doe reform bill into law Friday.

The law limits the use of John Doe probes to serious felonies and abuse of public trust by law enforcement officials. It sets time limits on investigations, allowing extensions with the approval of a panel of Wisconsin’s chief judges. And prosecutors would have to provide a general summary of the costs.

Targets and witnesses in a John Doe investigation would no longer be bound by secrecy orders that threaten them with jail for discussing the investigation, although prosecutors and judges would.

Gone are the kinds of pre-dawn, paramilitary-style raids, like those pervasive in the political John Doe probe, for alleged paper crimes. Instead, prosecutors would employ what every other state in the country does: a grand jury.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: 2016election; election2016; gab; impeachnow; irs; johndoe; kevinkennedy; loislerner; paulryan; scottwalker; wisconsin

LERNER & KENNEDY: Wisconsin lawmakers are asking GAB director Kevin Kennedy to release his communications with the IRS. They are curious whether a newly released email refers to communications Kennedy had with ‘personal friend and IRS agent Lois Lerner

RELATED: Newly released John Doe docs reveal much more about rogue GAB

1 posted on 10/26/2015 9:22:25 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic; onyx; Hunton Peck; Diana in Wisconsin; P from Sheb; Shady; DonkeyBonker; ...

And on and on. I think that Kennedy and Lerner’s relationship smells fishy. Stale fishy. Why is he so incensed about being questioned about a professional “friendship”? And What was he doing trotting off to DC to dine with her? (Presumably on the taxpayer dime)

FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.


2 posted on 10/26/2015 9:25:29 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

More complete story here:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/421020/surprise-surprise-lois-lerner-had-friends-wisconsin-david-french

This came to light 3 months BEFORE the FBI said there is no “there” there.


3 posted on 10/26/2015 9:35:51 AM PDT by cookcounty ("I was a Democrat until I learned to count" --Maine Gov. Paul LePage)
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To: cookcounty

Thanks for the link. I’d forgotten about that Natl. Review account. Kennedy and lerner both are worms. My fondest dream is to see both of them in orange in the dock.


4 posted on 10/26/2015 9:40:23 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic (.)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

“Walker signed the John Doe reform bill into law Friday.”

The Buck Stops Here.


5 posted on 10/26/2015 6:33:44 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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