Posted on 12/17/2015 12:57:26 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Part 307 of 306 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War
MADISON, Wis. - With a state Supreme Court deadline looming, a conservative target of Wisconsin's notorious John Doe investigation is urging Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm to take his case to the court.
Political activist Eric O'Keefe believes there's a teachable moment here for the partisan DA who launched the investigation more than three years ago.
O'Keefe in a statement issued Wednesday said Chisholm should file to intervene in the Wisconsin Supreme Court's recent ruling that reaffirmed the politically driven probe into dozens of conservative groups and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker was unconstitutional.
O'Keefe asserts the Democrat DA should also "hire competent counsel" to review his options for filing a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the state court's ruling.
"Chisholm and his allies have not been willing to accept the clear decisions" of John Doe Judge Gregory Peterson, federal judges Charles Clevert and Rudolph Randa, or the state supreme court, O'Keefe said.
Peterson nearly two years ago quashed the subpoenas used to carry out armed, early-morning raids on the homes of conservatives who have never been charged with any wrongdoing. The judge's ruling effectively ended the investigation, but John Doe special prosecutor Francis Schmitz appealed the decision.
Randa, too, ordered the investigation shut down and allowed a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Eric O'Keefe and his Wisconsin Club for Growth to proceed because the conservatives had presented plausible charges that the prosecutors violated their constitutional rights. A federal appeals court later tossed out the lawsuit, not on its merits but on the principle that the legal controversies belonged in state courts.
Clevert spelled out in no uncertain terms that the prosecutors and the state Government Accountability Board, partners in the probe, could no longer pursue investigations based on the same unconstitutional campaign finance statutes, rules, and regulations it used in the John Doe probe. The GAB was made to clearly post the court's order on its website.
Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court ruled that Schmitz's position as special prosecutor was not valid from its inception, and ordered that Schmitz could no longer intervene in the case. But Chisholm and the four other county district attorneys who signed off on the probe can. They have until Friday to decide.
While the two Republican DAs have said they are cashing out of the John Doe game, Chisholm has said he is mulling over whether to petition the U.S. Supreme Court.
O'Keefe said he hopes Chisholm does.
"By hiring competent counsel to consider a certiorari petition, Mr. Chisholm and his allies will be told that the Supreme Court ruling that found this John Doe investigation 'without foundation in reason or law' was based both on the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and on the stronger protections of free speech in the Wisconsin constitution."
O'Keefe said Chisholm's open intervention would "make official what was already occurring, as his staffers have been writing the briefs signed by the illegally appointed special prosecutor."
"Competent counsel will also inform Mr. Chisholm that claims that some justices who voted with the majority should have recused themselves from the case are without foundation," O'Keefe said.
Schmitz had argued that two of the four Wisconsin Supreme Court justices in the original 4-2 ruling declaring the investigation unconstitutional should have recused themselves because they benefited during their campaigns from millions of dollars of issue ads by some of the targets of the probe - including Wisconsin Club for Growth.
Omitted from Schmitz's recusal argument was former Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson, unofficial leader of the court's liberal wing, who, too, arguably benefited from issues ads by unions and other liberal groups that drove the 2012 recall campaign against Walker.
Schmitz cited a court case dealing with a private citizen’s due process rights. As O'Keefe notes in his statement, leaning on that case is a faulty legal argument at its core.
"Due process rights protect individuals from government; the state does not have a due process right to endlessly investigate private citizens," he said.
O'Keefe added that the targets of the John Doe did not make contributions to the justices' campaign committees. They engaged in issue ads to "offset the same amount of issue advertising that was conducted by groups opposed to the election" of the victorious conservative justices. Besides, O'Keefe said, the John Doe matters were not before the state Supreme Court during the justices' political campaigns, campaigns that occurred years before the investigation turned into a multi-county dragnet.
"It is unfortunate that Mr. Chisholm has chosen to ignore the rights of citizens and the decisions of judges," O'Keefe said.
"Mr. Chisholm should intervene and engage independent counsel to consider a cert petition so that someone he trusts can explain to him that there are no grounds for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling," O'Keefe said.
ON TARGET: Political activist Eric O'Keefe, a target in the unconstitutional John Doe investigation, is urging Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm to challenge the state Supreme Court's ruling declaring the John Doe dead. O'Keefe believes it will be a valuable teachable moment for the Democrat DA.
Related: District attorneys want out of political John Doe business
Gross incompetence!
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Chisholm and wife should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
if Chisholm was a Republican doing this it would be natl headline news for decades and hollyweird would have already made a movie that would be awarded an oscar
Club for Growth and all those the Walkerites are GOPe.
So you approve of jack-booted John Chisolm battering in the doors of common citizens?
Walker has been quite conservative and has shown how to roll back blue state power. He deserves better than ignorant slurs.
What a stupid thing to say.
There is really no protection from political activists like Chisolm. Unless he can be sued personally, and any judgement made non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, along with a 10-year suspension of his ability to practice law, there is no down-side for political shenanigans by political operatives in government.
Even if true, so what? A miscarriage of justice is a miscarriage of justice, no matter who is the object of the miscarriage.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.