Deborah Jordahl: Wisconsin’s Comey-over

Power Line ^ | 1-11-18 | Scott Johnson

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We have followed recent events in Wisconsin’s scandalous John Doe investigation of Governor Walker’s allies and supporters here (also citing background on the scandal) and here. State senator Tom Tiffany then updated us on the scandal’s aftermath. Now Senator Tiffany has directed our attention to Matt Kittle’s current MacIver Institute report “In John Doe’s shadow: Showdown looms in bitter battle over bureaucrats’ jobs.”

Senator Tiffany has also forwarded Deborah Hawley Jordahl’s column commenting on current developments. Ms. Jordahl was herself a victim of the secret John Doe investigation. Her home was searched and turned upside down in a pre-dawn raid by armed deputies in 2013 in the course of the investigation; the Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel takes up Ms. Jordahl’s ordeal in chapters 19 (“Raid Day”) and 20 (“Fight Club”) of her invaluable Intimidation Game.

Ms. Jordahl writes: What do a former attorney general, two former judges, two licensed attorneys and a former state legislator have in common?

They presided over the Wisconsin Ethics Commission when it opened its doors on July 1, 2016. This agency and the Wisconsin Elections Commission were created to replace Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board (GAB) following its participation in an unconstitutional John Doe investigation into Republican Governor Scott Walker, his aides and allies.

As a longtime conservative strategist and consultant, I had a front row seat to what the Wisconsin Supreme Court called “a perfect storm of wrongs,” visited upon people who are “wholly innocent of any wrongdoing.”

The court noted: Deputies seized business papers, computer equipment, phones, and other devices, while their targets were restrained under police supervision and denied the ability to contact their attorneys. The special prosecutor obtained virtually every document possessed by the Unnamed Movants relating to every aspect of their lives, [snip], over a five-year span [snip]

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FTA: Recently the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DoJ) conducted a criminal investigation into the illegal leak of court sealed John Doe records and found the Wisconsin Ethics Commission had not complied with the court’s order.

Not. Even. Close.

Apparently Wisconsin ethics officials don’t grasp the significance of a Supreme Court order or fully comprehend the meaning of words like “require,” “shall” and “all.”

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FTA: DoJ’s report said the agency had not properly secured documents and electronic records. In addition, at least one external hard drive containing illegally obtained private records had gone missing on its watch. After DoJ made several attempts to collect documents from the commission, its top administrator and general counsel refused to speak to investigators without a lawyer.

The agency then hired a lawyer who specializes in defending government in cases involving civil rights violations. In other words, the Wisconsin Ethics Commission was more concerned about its civil liability than potential crimes committed by other government officials.

Not only did DoJ conclude the illegally leaked records came from the GAB or its successor agency, but also the ethics commission had millions more records seized in investigations going back 27 years.

I’m not a lawyer, but the court order looks straightforward to me. Not so much to a former attorney general, two former judges, two licensed attorneys and a former state legislator. They won’t even ask the commission’s administrator and general counsel to resign because the men
exceeded expectations in recent performance reviews.

Failing to comply with a court order, “misplacing” a hard drive filled with sealed court records, and changing stories before lawyering up in a criminal investigation exceeds expectations for the state’s top ethics officials?

A friend of mine calls the FBI’s report regarding Hillary Clinton’s emails a “Comey-over.” It appears Wisconsin’s ethics officials are trying to cover their bald spot. Expect more judges, lawyers, state legislators and attorneys general to get involved before this shameful episode finally concludes.