Hue said if he faced charges related to the release of the ethics investigation details, “I would have to plead guilty.” It’s unclear whether the law would apply to a judge.

In his statement Monday, Schimel described “media reports indicat(ing) that ‘John Doe III’ was ‘not a John Doe at all,’ but solely a GAB ethics investigation” as “false.” The State Journal reported the GAB ethics investigation was based on evidence collected by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office during the John Doe I investigation, as Schimel confirmed.

The John Doe I was an investigation into Walker’s Milwaukee County office that netted six felony convictions, including two related to staff campaigning on taxpayer time during the 2010 election.

Schimel said the Milwaukee County DA’s Office started the investigation by obtaining a 2010 search warrant for several email accounts; followed by a 2011 search warrant for phone records and emails; a 2012 subpoena to the Legislative Technology Services Bureau, the Senate and the Assembly; and then several 2012 search warrants and subpoenas mostly to email providers. It also obtained the recordings of one or more phone calls, possibly by a wiretap, though the records do not specify how they were recorded, he said.