Saturday, March 2, 2013

Walkergate: Say It Ain't So, Doe!

By now, the gentle reader assuredly has heard that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm as ended the John Doe investigation, more commonly referred to as Walkergate.  In his press release, Chisholm said that there would be no further charges pressed, against Scott Walker or anyone else related to the crimes that were committed.

I, like many on the left, felt disbelief, confusion and incredible frustration.  It was like adding two plus two and coming up with three.  There was obviously a disconnect somewhere with what we know and with the end result, but we couldn't figure out what was missing.

The Walker propagandists and apologists were, as one would have expected, euphoric about the news, with some going over the top.  One example would be the Media Trackkker troll Brian Sikma acting like his smear campaign was single-handedly responsible for the death of John Doe.  Another one would be Koch employee Kevin Binversie, who was hoping that the news would make me suicidal.

But perhaps the most ridiculous statements I've heard were the claims that the end of this investigation was somehow a vindication of Walker.  Now, after nearly three years of the investigation, Walker's people were actually trying to claim for the first time that Walker was innocent, even though all the evidence that we already know of shows that he was being no Eagle Scout.

But first, how the hell did this happen?

Well, only Chisholm knows for sure right now and I'm loathe to try to second guess his reasoning for making the decision to pull the plug on the investigation.

But he does give us a reason of sorts in his press release when he said (emphasis mine):

The Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office follows a policy of filing charges only where it believes proof beyond a reasonable doubt supports the allegations in a criminal complaint.  After a review of the John Doe evidence, I am satisfied that all charges that are supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt now have been brought and concluded.  As a consequence, last week my office petitioned for, and Judge Nettesheim as now granted, the closure of the John Doe investigation.

What Chisholm is saying is not that Walker wasn't John Doe or that he is innocent. What he is saying is that he did not feel that they had enough evidence to support the burden of proof in a criminal hearing.

And that is what doesn't make sense.  He has a bloody dumpster full of proof that crimes were committed, more crimes and more criminals than what they have charged for in the first place.  This leaves a lot of questions that Chisholm is going to have to answer.

But for how Walker apparently is able to get off scot-free comes down to three things:

  1. Spending half a million dollars on some of the best attorneys in the state and beyond.
  2. Buying the silence of witnesses, as evidenced by the fact that he and WISGOP were giving money to Kelly Rindfleisch to earn her silence.
  3. Plausible deniability, which is where those high-priced attorneys come in.
What it means is that thanks to the Teapublicans around the country giving him megabucks and allowing him to transfer that lucre to his legal defense fund, he was able to hire on lawyers that specialized in white collar and syndicate type of crimes.  He was also able to use the money that he didn't put into his personal legal defense into the campaigns defense and still have enough to pay for the defense of the people who might have otherwise turned state's witness against him.

Without those witnesses, it would be a safe bet that the attorneys would be able to cast enough doubt on his participation into the illegal campaigning and other crimes committed in order to further his political aspirations that the DA didn't feel confident enough that they could win in court.

So does this mean Walker is innocent after all?

Hardly.

The fact that he had to spend a half a million dollars in his defense belies that point.  

And as we have well established, with all things Walkergate, there is more.  There is always more.  And still even more.  

But as usual, Walker gives himself away in his response to the closure of Walkergate and the fact that he is now to talk about his supposed innocence and release the documents, including the emails that would indeed vindicated him if he was innocent:
The governor disagreed, saying Chisholm didn't need to release more records from the investigation. 
"No, he looked into what we asked him to look through, he took action, he saw that actions were taken and the investigation completed, and now it's time to move forward," Walker said.
Not exactly what you would expect to hear from a person who is innocent. Why would Walker be so vehemently resistant to the release of the records if he has nothing to hide?

Most significant of all is the fact that Walker has never produced a letter from the DA stating that he was not the target of the Walkergate investigation, nor was he granted immunity.

While Chisholm might feel that there was not enough proof beyond a reasonable doubt to take Walker to trial, there is most definitely enough proof beyond a reasonable doubt to think that was not an active participant in the crimes committed.

So what now?

That's anyone's guess.  Political pundits think that Walker has escaped any serious taint that will affect him in his reelection campaign next year or his presidential bid in 2016.  But the experts also though that John Gotti, the Teflon Don, was untouchable after he was acquitted three times in the 1980s.  Gotti ended up dying in prison.

There has been reports of the feds taking over the case.  There has also been reports that Walker also is under another John Doe in Dane County.  But there has been no solid reports on either of these possibilities in months.  I personally would not advise anyone to hinge their hopes on one of these things materializing.

But I would expect that there will be a barrage of Open Record Requests being filed, and perhaps even a civil lawsuit or two being filed.  Especially now that Walker has made it so abundantly clear that there are things in there that he doesn't want to ever see the light of day.

But even if nothing else is done, there are still a lot of questions that Walker would need to answer sooner or later, if not for John Doe, then for John Q. Public.

20 comments:

  1. mmm 'kay. I came over here specifically to see what (if anything) you were going to "do" with the Dahmer comments.
    Acting like it never happened I suppose.
    Because if the behavior is always going to be, that Democratic party supporters and mouthpieces (of which you are certainly one) are going to loudly proclaim over the flaws of Republicans, while simultaneously NOT expecting clean behavior out of your own troops, then a lot of people like me (and very unlike me) are going to remain turned off, and remain distant and uninvolved. Oh look it matters when Democrats stay away from the polls, but yet...there's still that failure to learn.
    Walker won in large part because of his opponents. I say opponents because I mean more than just Tom Barrett.
    And if Tate and Zielinski weren't joking when they said they might be putting Larson up for next Governor, ho-lee crap. Larson will do worse than Barrett did.
    Anyways, that Graeme. Needs to hear from his own people that it's time to grow up. Actually, if he hasn't by now, it's clearly too late.
    I know there are a few "adults" in the Democrat's "room". If only they could manage to take the keys away from the horrible little brats.

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    1. Get over you're Graeme derangement syndrome Doug....not healthy for you

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  2. Damn it! I hate mentally composing a bit of Tate-abuse, only to scroll down & find some self-righteous Walkerbot has beaten me to the punch. (Was going to post: "I agree that no one should "hinge their hopes" on feds/2nd JD solving our Walker problem, though I'll wait for Walker's next defense fund filing with the IRS before closing that federal grand jury door completely. Meanwhile, what to do about that corrupt lying sack of trash occupying our governor's mansion? Maybe we need to mix things up for 2014? Run a shit-hot candidate backed by a savvy campaign team? Send Tate & his King street kids on a company paid vacay for the duration.")

    Though, Walkerbot (wait, what? you have a name? thoughts? opinions? independent of your party leaders?), for the record, no one on the right has been more critical of the state dem party chair these last two years than those of us (rabid-rank-and-file-Walker-recallers) on the left.

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    1. Truth in the last paragraph. We could have done so much better than to rerun a loser.

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  3. "I, like many on the left, felt disbelief, confusion and incredible frustration. "

    That's what happens when you construct your own reality and it comes crashing down. You're not much different than the brainless partisan hack Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post, who constructed her own reality that said surely the Chuck Hagel nomination would be withdrawn or rejected by the Senate. Or the loons at Fox News who were convinced that Romney would win in a landslide.

    For whatever reason you've chose to completely reject any and all information that conflicts with your self-constructed reality, so you shouldn't be surprised when the delusion can no longer hold.

    Deal with it.

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    1. I cannot stand it. I really can't. Someone give me a reason to even begin to trust this corrupt system ever again. I lived in Illinois for 6 years and couldn't wait to get back to our beloved Wisconsin -where you could believe government was possibly not corrupt and that people would be held accountable for crimes while in power. HA! No, more accurately - SOB! I cannot stand it.

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    2. Yet of course you have no answer to Walker spending a half million on defense attorneys. Do you really believe that he spent that much just to handle some paperwork? Yes or no please.

      Of course in the end it doesn't really matter. OJ got away with it too.

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  4. Walker will NOT have to answer any questions from John Q. Public because the media propaganda machine that created him will now declare him innocent and a victim -- just like the recall cycle -- the media will catapult the lie that it is UNFAIR to walker because, you know, the secrecy was about protecting scott walker from exactly these "unfiair" charges.

    No walker/bush family member ever is held accountable -- walker is from that facist clan, but even self-proclaimed "liberals" won't publish, write, or blog about this.

    And the media and the ringleaders of "liberal" alternative news also ban and flame any dialog about open, free, verifiable, transparent, and open election --- simple statistical tools taught in basic-level stats classes demonstrate our elections are not on the up-and-up which which is why repugs gerrymander and then scream VOTE FRAUD to distract from the ELECTION FRAUD.

    If there was a madison John Doe, something would have come out -- if nothing else -- walker's minions would be leaking to discredit the investigation (like they did with Milw Cty).

    Obama's DOJ has shown itself to be TOTALLY UNINTERESTED in crimes against our nation and democracy -- but if you are in a state that legalizes marijuana -- they come down hard. Don't expect relief there.

    The public, bombarded with propaganda, will never have a meaningful chance to air questions about this and even if they do, the media machine will bury them all with silence.

    Until we take action -- economic action/boycotts of publishers and advertisers -- the media environment that created walker will not change.

    If we don't demand free, fair, open, transparent, and verifiable elections; we will not have them -- elections are hijacked.

    But even folks here mindlessly accept that Obama crushed mitt romney in WI yet only a few months earlier, walker crushed barrett -- this should be enough to demonstrate election fraud alone. But if you really look at the data, you can prove it too.

    The left is entirely misdirected.

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  5. There is no crime in using a secret email system to set up anonymous dates to have gay sex. Want to know what John Doe really boils down to critically reread the Brian Pierick criminal complaint. Who was really with Pierick the day it happened. The complaint reads "unnamed" not "unknown" co-conspirator. See for example page 15 of the complaint. Pierick's partner Russell is named throughout the complaint but who is this "unnamed" person. Why would Russell need to remain "unnamed" in the complaint. Remember not "unknown" but rather "unnamed" WHY?
    Also, why is the Pierick complaint so detailed about events not associated with the attempts to meet the juvenile in Waukesha? see page 19. Who is "davelove420"? Was John Doe having sex with "davelove420"? Why was David Halbrook given immunity?
    Nothing criminal about having gay sex but boy Walker sure does not want this info released wonder why????

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  6. Crapper- are you and Simpleson both on suicide watch?? Remember, cut your wrist with the vein, not across. Poor, poor Crapper.

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    1. Capper was wrong about everything. I thought Nardelli was talking? I thought it was only a matter of time?. Capper has no credibility, why anyone would bother reading his crap is beyond belief

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  7. is it true that tate is putting together a contest for a anti-walker bumper sticker ?

    give me a break !

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  8. It seems like it's United Wisconsin, from what I saw, LE. But people do need to get off of John Doe for now (don't worry, we might well meet him again), and concentrate on the many other reasons Walker is unfit for office. Capper's article earlier this week on the decimation to our schools is a good example

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  9. So Chisholm spent 3 years to give out slaps on the wrist. Reindfleisch was a repeat offender, and she gets 6 months and obviously gave up nothing.Chisholm is either incompetent, scared, or corrupt..a secret e-mail system(we know Walker used) and this is all there is?pathetic

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  10. Walker has NOT shut down his criminal defense fund.

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  11. Chisholm may as well not have bothered with Reindfleisch and Wink in this whole sordid affair if he couldn't get anything definitive on Walker. It just made himself look impotent. (I have no sympathy for those other 2 bozos. They deserved what they got.)

    As far as 2014, the only Progressive/Dem I can see having half a chance at beating Walker would be Feingold. While I really like Chris Larson, I'm not sure he has enough time in the mud pit yet. While I like Tom Barrett, he is a 2 time loser. He should stick to being mayor of Milw. If anyone else has any other ideas.....

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    1. I don't see Russ running for anything again.

      And Barrett is a three time loser for governor, but who's counting? ;)

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  12. sorry wisconsinites, and all lovers of justice and fairness and sanity and for everyone but gun-totin, tar-sand-dune-buggyin, racist hypocrite teabag lickers, this has been a tough week what with this bullsh*t, VRA sect 5 looking domed, Obama pardoning a bunch of schmucks but not Don Siegelman, Keystone XL getting the State Dept. green light, and the freekin sequester to top it all off. And I'm forgetting a few things. Keep at it Cap. Walker will get his due eventually.

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  13. Capper finally eats crow, add some tartar sauce, maybe you then can swallow. You still are a true piece of sh_t!

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  14. This was one big whiney article. Here are the cliff notes : "yeah, but." Good grief.

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