Surprise -- Wisconsin’s “John Doe” prosecutors send 159 notices on secret surveillance on court order

From Hot Air:

For those who don’t recall the now-infamous “John Doe” investigation in Wisconsin, it began with the suspicion that Scott Walker’s recall-defense campaign was illegally coordinating with outside conservative groups. Even the basis for this complaint was fraudulent, as Wisconsin’s Supreme Court eventually ruled; there is no legal restriction on communication with other groups as long as it produces no explicit endorsement. But the special prosecutors used this probe to intimidate an untold number of conservatives into silence, conducted secret raids and threatened any of their targets who spoke about them publicly, and secretly accessed their communications as well.

The Wisconsin court ordered prosecutor Francis Schmitz to notify the targets of the electronic surveillance. http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/special-prosecutor-in-john-doe-sends-159-notices-on-records-obtained-b99646465z1-364288731.html, showing the scope of the attack on privacy and political thought by Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board.

Over 150 notices?

Based on what we see here, Governor Walker should appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Schmitz and his team for potential violations of the law and of prosecutorial ethics. Wisconsin should act to either disband the GAB or to considerably shrink its authority and power at the same time [see update]. These were nothing but police-state tactics to intimidate conservatives from political activism in order to sustain a progressive status quo preferred by the governing class.
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Update: From Steve Eggleston in the comments: “Already done. The GAB will cease to exist come July 1, and the John Doe process has since been limited to crimes such as rape and murder.” I’d forgotten that Walker had fulfilled his promise on the GAB. Thanks for a most excellent reminder.

Putting this clowns under the same investigative exam they went after opponents would be a bit of karma. Let those guys rack up some legal bills.

Wisconsin’s Shame -- The ‘John Doe’ Investigations

From National Review:

Moreover, it’s now apparent that the John Doe investigators dumped thousands of privileged messages obtained during previous John Doe investigations into a searchable database — called “Relativity” — that prosecutors and investigators used to review Doe documents. Investigators kept stumbling across privileged documents, and even the hardened partisans understood that the lack of adequate privilege review (undertaken by a so-called “taint team”) could threaten the investigation.

Nor were documents confined to the Relativity database. Deposition testimony reveals that investigators passed around flash drives containing subpoenaed information, including confidential financial information, storing those drives in desk drawers, pasting sensitive e-mails into Word documents, and accumulating records without any system for organizing evidence.

In their own court filing, the John Doe investigators deny wrongdoing, assuring the court that they didn’t review privileged information and that their review of documents seized through the expansive subpoenas of Internet-service providers was entirely proper and not prohibited by any court. The investigators strongly object to any claims of wrongdoing in the investigation and continue to maintain that they were investigating potentially illegal behavior, not First Amendment–protected speech.

To this date, multiple raid targets don’t yet possess a complete list of items taken, and they believe that the investigators failed to properly inventory all seized assets. Moreover, there was at least one “secret” raid. Sources told National Review that investigators raided one office when no one was present, never disclosed the raid in any of the briefings before state and federal courts, never provided the raid targets with a copy of the warrant, and failed to provide an inventory of items seized.

The result is a privacy invasion of staggering proportions. In the interests of investigating First Amendment–protected activity, the John Doe inquisitors had seized vast amounts of personal information — including information protected by attorney-client privilege — dumped it into a searchable database controlled by angry partisans, and then refused to exercise systematic, meaningful control over the data. The lack of control was recognized even by the investigators themselves. In a confidential, heavily redacted memorandum obtained by National Review, GAB general counsel Kevin Kennedy noted that he “lack[ed] a clear and complete record of the source of each set of documents” obtained in the investigation.

Punch back twice as hard, and hopefully there will be some perp walks.

Wisconsin Supreme Court -- the partisan John Doe investigation was unsupported in reason or law

From HotAir:

The long unraveling of the so-called “John Doe II investigation” convened by partisan district attorneys in Wisconsin is now complete. This case was about using vague campaign-finance rules to intimidate conservative groups and smear Republican officials, including Gov. Scott Walker. No charges were filed in the John Doe II investigation and it was halted by both the state and federal courts.

Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court releases its final disposition in the case

To be clear, this conclusion ends the John Doe investigation because the special prosecutor’s legal theory is unsupported in either reason or law.  Consequently, the investigation is closed.  Consistent with our decision and the order entered by Reserve Judge Peterson, we order that the special prosecutor and the district attorneys involved in this investigation must cease all activities related to the investigation, return all property seized in the investigation from any individual or organization, and permanently destroy all copies of information and other materials obtained through the investigation.  All Unnamed Movants are relieved of any duty to cooperate further with the investigation.

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This decision does not punish the instigators of the John Doe II investigation, beyond tanking their reputations for pursuing what a concurring justice calls “a fishing expedition into the lives, work, and thoughts of countless citizens.” A federal civil rights lawsuit was shut down by the 7th Circuit last year on the grounds that it was premature to involve the federal courts before the state courts had a chance to resolve the claims. That lawsuit, or one like it, may be revived. A state action for civil damages is also a possibility.

Let the civil lawsuits, for violation of civil rights begin!!!

Time to punch back twice as hard.

Wisconsin’s Shame -- ‘He Could Have Been Shot. Over Politics’

From David French at National Review:

It was still dark outside when “Jonah” (not his real name) heard the pounding on his front door. As luck would have it, he was awake — or mostly awake. He’d gotten up at 4:00 a.m. on October 3, 2013, to see his parents off to the airport. They were leaving on a quick trip to raise money for the children’s charity his father runs. Jonah was 16 at the time, old enough to stay home alone for a short time, but not old enough to deal with what awaited him on the other side of the door.

The pounding continued, and Jonah peered out the window to discover its source. To his horror, he saw uniformed officers, their guns drawn. “Police,” they yelled. “We have a warrant.” An officer shined a flashlight on a document Jonah couldn’t read. Unsure what to do, but unwilling to defy the authorities, he let them in.

The officers sat him down, read him the entire search warrant, and ordered him not to tell anyone about the raid — not even school officials. He asked if he could call his parents. They said no. He asked if he could call a lawyer. They said no.
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This story should sound familiar. In April, National Review shared the accounts of three women — Cindy Archer and two others, “Anne” and “Rachel” — who related their own terrifying experiences with dawn or pre-dawn police raids. The police brought a battering ram to Archer’s house, literally watched her dress, and then ran into the bathroom as her partner showered. “Anne” thought for a moment she was facing a home invasion as investigators poured through her front door and screamed taunts in her face. Police followed “Rachel” into the bedrooms where her children slept, where they woke to the sight of armed officers looming over them.
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The damage to the family’s reputation was immense. Soon after the raid, and despite court orders mandating confidentiality (orders that prevented the family from publicly defending themselves), their names leaked to the press. Jonah’s father — working to help the most disadvantaged kids — found himself struggling to defend a professional reputation under siege. In both his day job as a political consultant and his nonprofit work, even the slightest rumor of illegality can cause clients and donors to shy away. As he puts it, when you’re hired as a consultant, “No matter how good you are, you can’t become the issue.” A consultant whose home was just raided by law enforcement is, most definitely, an “issue” for any politician or political movement.
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And his mother continues to be terrified by the thought of what could have happened in the raid.

“We’re so fortunate that he’s okay,” she says. “He could have been in the shower. They could have broken the door down. He could have been shot. Over politics.”

John Chisholm needs to be prosecuted, federally, for civil rights violations, under to color of authority and spend 20 years in jail.

Why I’m Filing a Civil-Rights Lawsuit

From Cindy Archer at the Wall Street Journal:

After much soul-searching, I am filing a civil-rights lawsuit on Wednesday against Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. I fear his retaliation, given what I know of his methods, but the Chisholm campaign against me that began at dawn on Sept. 14, 2011, requires a legal response to discourage the prosecutor’s continued abuse of his office.
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Nothing could have prepared me for waking up to the shouts of men with battering rams announcing that they were about to break down my door on that morning in 2011. It was so unexpected and frightening that I ran down from my bedroom without clothes on. Panicked by the threatened show of force, I was then humiliated as officers outside the window yelled at me to get dressed and open up. I quickly retrieved clothing and dressed as I unlocked the door.
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I have also been subjected to derogatory headlines and made the butt of jokes on talk radio and anti-Walker websites about everything from my personal appearance to my sexual orientation and mental stability. Neighbors became distant and suspicious.

As Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit recommends, "Punch back twice as hard!"

Lawsuit spells out 'nightmare' for California man accused without evidence

From Ashe Schow of The Washington Examiner:

"Nightmare." That's how Scott Hounsell, the former executive director of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, describes the ordeal he went through two years ago, and is still trying to recover from today.

"It was the most — the scariest, most devastating nightmare you could ever imagine ever going through ever," Hounsell added. "Because everything that you have and hold dear — my family, my career, everything — was threatened that it would be taken away from me."
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The arrest

On July 1, 2013, a Democratic former assemblyman named Mike Feuer became L.A. City Attorney. When the Los Angeles County District Attorney declined to press charges against Hounsell on July 30, Feuer seized the case. Officer Good contacted Hounsell again to find out his attorney's information. Members of the press began calling Hounsell, his family and his employer to discuss charges Hounsell wasn't even aware of yet.

The media circus that ensued — complete with news cameras camping outside his family home for days — made Hounsell believe this was in part motivated by political harassment. "The City originally wanted to take me into custody at my house, where the press was heading," he said. "When I showed up downtown to turn myself in, it sent everyone for a scramble, and they couldn't get cameras there in time."
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When the city attorney finally dropped the charges May 14 — nine months after Hounsell's arrest — the reason cited was "no victim" and "no forensics." The alleged victim had refused to testify, and there was still no evidence of any Facebook contact between Hounsell and Jane Doe.

The lawsuit

By then, Hounsell had obviously been forced to resign from the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. He had to take up odd jobs to support his family. His name was mud.

On Nov. 19, 2014, he sued the L.A. city attorney for defamation, false arrest, malicious prosecution and violation of his 14th Amendment rights. He sought $3.6 million for reputation management (including $24,879 per month for two years to clean up his Google search results), lost wages, career damage and $500,000 for emotional distress.

On April 9, 2015, Judge Margaret Morrow dismissed his claim based on prosecutors' arguments that they enjoy absolute immunity, but provided Hounsell with a leave to amend so that he can challenge whether immunity applies in this case.

"[T]he LACA enjoys absolute immunity for deciding to file charges against Hounsell, whether or not it adequately investigated the facts of the case, adequately determined the statutes under which it should file charges, or adequately reviewed and/or disclosed allegedly exculpatory evidence," Morrow wrote in her dismissal.

If that's the case, Hounsell told the Examiner, then "The most powerful job in this country then is prosecutor, because the Constitution doesn't apply to you."
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Hounsell and his attorney say that if the judge rules in the city's favor, it "will set a dangerous federal precedent that prosecutors can use their office for reasons to exact revenge and punishment upon political enemies." The city attorney, after all, knew for months that there were no Facebook messages, yet dragged out the case anyway.

This is another example of Liberals using "lawfare" against political enemies, similar to the Joe Dow investigations in Wisconsin.

Time to remove the "absolute immunity" prosecutors have and change it to "qualified immunity." If there is no thread of consequences,

John Chisholm Double Downs on Thuggery

From Ann Althouse:

"Is Milwaukee County DA interested in pursuing criminal libel prosecutions of his political critics?" Asks Eugene Volokh, noting that John Chisholm made a bit of a veiled threat toward Governor Scott Walker: "As to defamatory remarks, I strongly suspect the Iowa criminal code, like Wisconsin’s, has provisions for intentionally making false statements intended to harm the reputation of others." That came in response to Walker's saying that the John Doe investigation "was really about people trying to intimidate people," "They were looking for just about anything," and "it was largely a political witch hunt."

Time to impeach this clown, or file a bar complaint.

Wisconsin’s Shame - ‘I Thought It Was a Home Invasion’

From David French of National Review:

Most Americans have never heard of these raids, or of the lengthy criminal investigations of Wisconsin conservatives. For good reason. Bound by comprehensive secrecy orders, conservatives were left to suffer in silence as leaks ruined their reputations, as neighbors, looking through windows and dismayed at the massive police presence, the lights shining down on targets’ homes, wondered, no doubt, What on earth did that family do?

This was the on-the-ground reality of the so-called John Doe investigations, expansive and secret criminal proceedings that directly targeted Wisconsin residents because of their relationship to Scott Walker, their support for Act 10, and their advocacy of conservative reform.

Largely hidden from the public eye, this traumatic process, however, is now heading toward a legal climax, with two key rulings expected in the late spring or early summer. The first ruling, from the Wisconsin supreme court, could halt the investigations for good, in part by declaring that the “misconduct” being investigated isn’t misconduct at all but the simple exercise of First Amendment rights.

The second ruling, from the United States Supreme Court, could grant review on a federal lawsuit brought by Wisconsin political activist Eric O’Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, the first conservatives to challenge the investigations head-on. If the Court grants review, it could not only halt the investigations but also begin the process of holding accountable those public officials who have so abused their powers.

This is the new strategy of the left, lawfare. Long practiced by Scientology and terrorists, it's now part of the arsenal of liberals, who can't win at the ballot box.

Media Aids And Abets Left-Wing Smear Of Governor Scott Walker

From William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection writing in The Daily Caller:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has had a massive left-wing target on his back ever since he ran for Governor in 2010, but particularly after 2011 when Walker signed into law a bill scaling back some public sector union collective bargaining rights.

There are few, if any, Republican politicians as hated on the left as Walker.

Walker’s not the most ideological Republican, but he is singled out because he so soundly and repeatedly defeated national efforts to stop collective bargaining reform.

The demonization of Walker is pervasive, and so-called “John Doe” investigations always have been an integral part of that effort. The mere pendency of such investigations is a critical part of anti-Walker messaging.

“John Doe” investigations in Wisconsin have been around for over a century, but only recently have they been used as political tools. Everything surrounding these types of investigations is secretive. They are commenced with a secret request to a judge, and a judge has to approve subpoenas.

Neither the persons who are the focus of the investigation nor persons subpoenaed are permitted to disclose to others any information about the existence or conduct of the investigation.
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Yet last week, pursuant to an appeals court order, some records were unsealed, in which the discredited allegation of a “criminal scheme” was released to the public.
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In federal court on Thursday, June 19, 2014, in refusing to release more records the judge summed up what is happening: Prosecutors were seeking “refuge in the Court of Public Opinion, having lost in this Court of law.”

The John Doe proceedings always have been politically motivated, and used in the war against Scott Walker.

You want to know who the Dims fear, look at who they and their buddies in the Drive-By-Media are smearing at the time.

Gabriel Malor Explains the John Doe Witchhunt

From Gabriel Malor at the Ace of Spades HQ:

I’m going to tell you a true story, and then tell you how the news media is covering it. This is a true story: in 2012, Democratic district attorneys in Wisconsin launched a secret probe known as a John Doe investigation with the goal of proving that conservative groups illegally coordinated activities during Gov. Scott Walker’s recall election. They issued more than 100 subpoenas, demanded the private information of conservatives and conservative groups, and actually conducted secret raids. And under state law, individuals who were targeted or witness to the investigation were forbidden from making knowledge of it public.

Fortunately, judges saw right through this partisan abuse of power. Early this year, a state judge, ruling in a secret proceeding, quashed the subpoenas and all but ended the investigation. According to the judge, “the subpoenas do not show probable cause that the moving parties committed any violations of the campaign finance laws.” This started the unraveling of the John Doe investigation that had many conservatives fearing they would be targeted for subpoenas and raids next.

In February, a conservative activist and group filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the partisan district attorneys who had pursued the John Doe probe. In short order, a federal district court judge held that the plaintiffs “are likely to succeed on their claim that the defendants‘ investigation violates their rights under the First Amendment, such that the investigation was commenced and conducted ―without a reasonable expectation of obtaining a valid conviction.” In other words, at this early stage of the civil rights litigation, it looks to the judge as if the Democratic district attorneys abused their power and chilled conservatives’ free speech rights. Accordingly, the federal judge ordered that the John Doe probe must cease, all the seized property be returned, and all copies of materials be destroyed.
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And that is where the litigation stands as of today. Having launched a secret probe that has now been shut down by both the state and federal courts, the Democratic district attorneys find themselves the subject of an ongoing civil rights lawsuit for infringing the First Amendment rights of conservatives. But that is not how the media have reported the case.

Spoiler Alert: They're not terribly keen on informing readers that two judges have found this prosecution not only meritless but illegal and likely to result in a cash-money judgement against the prosecutors, for abuse of civil rights.

TWO judges believed the investigation were bogus. TIme for RICO charges as well.

More Info -- Federal Judge Shuts Down Secret "John Doe" Investigations of Scott Walker and Right-Leaning Groups

From Ace of Spades HQ:

As I understand it, the main complaint was that prosecutorial resources were being warped for partisan purposes.

As Wisconsin Reporter first revealed, the investigation, launched in early 2012 by the Democrat-led Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, aims to prove conservatives illegally coordinated activities in the historic recalls of Gov. Scott Walker and Republican state senators, multiple sources say. One source with knowledge of the investigation has told Wisconsin Reporter the ultimate goal is to bring down Walker, the bane of Wisconsin liberals.
Conservative targets and others close to Wisconsin’s latest politically charged John Doe contend the probe is nothing more than a “taxpayer-funded, opposition-research campaign.”
“This is not a question of what conservatives did wrong. It’s a question of one party in this state using prosecutorial powers to conduct a one-sided investigation into conservatives,” said one source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to his proximity to the probe.
What is striking is that no liberal organizations appear to be targeted in the John Doe, particularly interesting in light of the tens of millions of dollars pumped into Wisconsin’s unprecedented spate of recalls in 2011 and 2012 by union and left-leaning groups.

And it should be noted that these prosecutors were searching for evidence in their probe. One can then wonder why they didn't also think of searching for evidence of illegal coordination among Walker's opponents

This entire investigation was being driven to scare off conservative groups. Make their legal bills so expensive that they quit. Similar to what the Prop 8 opponents have done in California. If you supported Prop. 8, you will be exposed, vilified, or forced to resign.

Federal Judge Smacks Down WIsconsins' John Doe Investigations

From Instapundit:

This was the secret investigation into conservative groups whose political speech in issue ads helped Governor Scott Walker in his recall campaign. The judge cited some crazy thing called “free speech.” Imagine! Just when the investigation was squelching the Club for Growth’s fundraising in an election year, intimidating the local conservatives, some busy-body federal judge waltzes in and says it’s “unconstitutional.” Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Free Speech is only free if it is approved by Liberals and Statists.