It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
John Doe Law:
Unlike normal criminal proceedings, which can be initiated if there is probable cause to believe a person has violated the law, John Doe proceedings help law enforcement develop the evidence necessary to establish the very existence of probable cause
In recent weeks, special prosecutor Francis Schmitz has hit dozens of conservative groups with subpoenas demanding documents related to the 2011 and 2012 campaigns to recall Governor Walker and state legislative leaders.
Copies of two subpoenas we've seen demand "all memoranda, email . . . correspondence, and communications" both internally and between the subpoena target and some 29 conservative groups, including Wisconsin and national nonprofits, political vendors and party committees. The groups include the League of American Voters, Wisconsin Family Action, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, Americans for Prosperity—Wisconsin, American Crossroads, the Republican Governors Association, Friends of Scott Walker and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.
The kitchen-sink subpoenas deserve skepticism considering their subject and targets. The disclosure of conservative political donors has become a preoccupation of the political left across the country. In the heat of the fight over Governor Walker's reforms, unions urged boycotts of Walker contributors and DemocraticUnderground.com published a list of Walker donors for boycotting. The subpoena demand for the names of donors to nonprofit groups that aren't legally required to disclose them is especially troubling. Readers may recall that the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent the tax-exempt applications of several conservative groups to the ProPublica news website in 2012.
Perhaps the probe will turn up some nefarious activity that warrants this subpoena monsoon and home raids. But in the meantime the effect is to limit political speech by intimidating these groups from participating in the 2014 campaign. Stifling allies of Mr. Walker would be an enormous in-kind contribution to Democrats.
Even if no charges are filed, the subpoenas will have served as a form of speech suppression. Mr. O'Keefe told us that the flurry of subpoenas "froze my communications and frightened many allies and vendors of the pro-taxpayer political movement in Wisconsin and across the country." Even if no one is ever convicted of a crime, he says, "the process is the punishment."
Another reason for skepticism is the probe's timing as Mr. Walker's 2014 re-election campaign looms. This is the second such investigation against Mr. Walker in three and a half years, following one that began in the office of Milwaukee County Democratic District Attorney John Chisholm in spring 2010.
That probe examined whether staffers used government offices for political purposes while Mr. Walker was Milwaukee County Executive, but after three years turned up nothing on Mr. Walker and embarrassingly little else. The final charges included a case of an aide sending campaign emails on county time, two Walker aides stealing money, and charges of child enticement against the domestic partner of a former staffer.
Mr. Walker's Democratic recall opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, nonetheless used the probe against the Governor, saying in a debate that "I have a police department that arrests felons, he has a practice of hiring them."
So it's notable that the new batch of subpoenas began flying just days before Democrat Mary Burke announced her candidacy for Governor. District Attorneys are partisan elected officials in Wisconsin, and Mr. Landgraf works for Mr. Chisholm. Neither of them returned our call for comment
elouina
reply to post by xuenchen
Well, yeah, these investigations keep popping up right before the elections.
According to a solicitation posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the Federal Protective Service, a sub-agency of the DHS, intends to hire “armed Protective Security Officer (PSO) services at various locations throughout the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.” “The project will have a requirement for the contractor to have a Top Secret facility clearance by the start of performance,” states the FPS notice.
BO XIAN
reply to post by buster2010
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh
The supporting perspective in behalf of the pathological liar in the DESTROYER IN CHIEF role, has 'spoken.'
Obviously, it must be the truth.
LOLOLOLOL.
Sarc.
Nephalim
reply to post by elouina
I don't see how that john doe law is even real. Is it real?
The law, “Bars a subpoena’s targets from disclosing its contents to anyone but his attorneys. John Doe probes work much like a grand jury, allowing prosecutors to issue subpoenas and conduct searches, while the gag orders leave the targets facing the resources of the state with no way to publicly defend themselves.”
The kitchen-sink subpoenas deserve skepticism considering their subject and targets.
edit on 18-11-2013 by elouina because: (no reason given)
Orientation Meeting for New Board Members
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 Agenda
Open/Closed Session
10:00 A.M.
Government Accountability Board Offices
212 East Washington, Third Floor
Madison, Wisconsin
The purpose of the New Board Member Orientation Meeting is solely to introduce Judge Harold
Froehlich and Judge Elsa Lamelas to the policies and operations of the Government Accountability
Board. Judge Timothy Vocke, the Board Chair, will also be in attendance. A quorum will not be
present. No public comment will be accepted and no Board actions will be taken. A portion of the
meeting to inform the new members about matters that are statutorily required to be confidential
will be held in closed session. After convening in closed session, the Board Members may return
to open session to complete the orientation.
ketsuko
reply to post by buster2010
Except that this very same thing was done to these same groups after Walker was elected the first time. This is basically being done under some obscure Wisconsin laws the don't even give the groups being raided the chance to speak on their own behalf.
And this was done before.
It's basically free opposition research on the tax payer dime.