We knew the John Doe investigation was a witch hunt, but we didn't know how corrupt it was. We didn't know the degree of abuse.
Now we know.
REPORT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING VIOLATIONS OF THE JOHN DOE SECRECY ORDERS, unsealed yesterday, reveals the appalling nature of the abuses.
From the Wisconsin State Journal:
The state Department of Justice is recommending disciplinary action, but no criminal charges, after completing a probe into leaked records from a now-shuttered John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walker’s 2012 recall campaign.The revelations are stunning.
In an 88-page report, Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel lays bare the actions of staff at the former Government Accountability Board as they dug into what is described as a previously unknown, secret “John Doe III” investigation into several GOP officials and staffers who were suspected of campaigning out of taxpayer-funded offices.
DOJ’s review of the evidence collected “did not indicate any unethical or illegal behavior by any state official, employee, or other Wisconsin Republican apparently targeted in John Doe III.”
Rather, the report criticizes the “breathtaking” sweep of the three John Doe investigations, which included 218 warrants and subpoenas. DOJ found the John Doe investigators obtained and categorized several private emails unrelated to campaigns, including 150 personal emails between Sen. Leah Vukmir and her daughter that included health information, and placed them in a folder labeled “Opposition Research” — a term that refers to political dirt collected on opponents.
“DOJ is deeply concerned by what appears to have been the weaponizing of GAB by partisans in furtherance of political goals,” Schimel wrote.
...The Schimel probe found John Doe investigators obtained the personal email accounts and IP login information for 35 GOP aides and political operatives, including Vukmir, R-Brookfield, plus hundreds of thousands of private emails they exchanged with Walker, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, former U.S. Senate candidate Terrence Wall, former RNC chairman and chief of staff to President Donald Trump Reince Priebus, U.S. Congressman Sean Duffy, state Sens. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, and Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk, Walker campaign chairman Joe Fadness and certain legislative staff members.
No charges were ever filed. A John Doe judge quashed the subpoenas in January 2014 after targets whose homes were searched in October 2013 objected that the warrants were overly broad. The Wisconsin Supreme Court shut down the investigation in July 2015 saying the legal theory underlying the investigation — that campaigns can’t coordinate with independent issue advocacy groups — was invalid.
Schimel concluded the GAB staff didn’t act in “a detached and professional manner” and that it was reasonable to infer “they were on a mission to bring down the Walker campaign and the Governor himself.”
The Government Accountability Board was indeed weaponized.
Disgraceful, SOP for Leftist partisan hacks.
The upsetting news that my privacy was violated as personal emails between my daughter and me were obtained, read and kept by those who ran the #JohnDoe investigation is absolutely appalling. https://t.co/m47uvd8E4x
— Senator Leah Vukmir (@LeahVukmir) December 6, 2017
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