- Now to news out of the Department of Justice.
The Wisconsin attorney general issued a scathing report this
week relating to his inquiry into leaked John Doe documents.
AG Brad Schimel is not recommending criminal charges,
but only, he says, because it's not possible to prove beyond a
reasonable doubt who leaked the documents.
As investigative records that were part of the secret probe
into Governor Scott Walker's campaign were "grossly
mishandled" by being kept in unlocked locations within the
offices of the former Government Accountability Board."
Schimel's investigation also discovered a previously-unknown
John Doe III, which investigated a wide range of GOP officials
and staffers suspected of campaigning on state time.
John Doe III didn't result in any charges,
but that probe's warrants and subpoenas of Republicans
included personal correspondence unrelated to any campaigns.
Some of those subpoenaed materials were found in a file
labeled "opposition research." Schimel's report says,
"DOJ is deeply concerned by what appears to have been the
weaponizing of GAB by partisans in furtherance of political
goals." The Department of Justice recommends disciplinary
action against a former GAB attorney whose hard drive
containing secret documents cannot be found.
Justice also asked the judge overseeing the leak case to
initiate contempt proceedings against that lawyer and several
others, including the former GAB director and the John Doe
special prosecutor Francis Schmitz.
To that, Schmitz says, "...
all I can say is that I was completely surprised to hear
about this.
I cooperated with officials from the DOJ at the outset of the
investigation and had no further contact with them." One Democrat
says Schimel's report reads like a partisan hit piece,
according to the AP.