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Prosecutors investigating alleged illegal coordination between recall campaigns and outside political groups are trying to prevent a federal judge from putting a stop to the probe.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa is considering whether to whether to halt the "John Doe" investigation based on arguments by Wisconsin Club for Growth that the probe is violating its free-speech rights to participate in the upcoming elections.

But members of the prosecution team filed an emergency appeal before the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago late Monday asking that court to order Randa not to take up the preliminary injunction request by Wisconsin Club for Growth.

The five-county probe, launched in 2012, is investigating whether Club for Growth and more than two dozen other conservative and Republican groups illegally coordinated with Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and other recall campaigns.

Club for Growth and one of its officers, Eric O'Keefe, filed suit in federal court in Milwaukee, arguing that the prosecutors are violating their free-speech rights to participate in upcoming elections and are politically biased against them. The plaintiffs are asking Randa to declare that prosecutors' attempts to derail their challenge of the investigation are legally "frivolous."