Fredreka Schouten and Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

Prosecutors claim Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was at the center of a plan to illegally coordinate fundraising with an array of outside conservative groups to help him and several Republican senators survive a 2012 recall election, newly released records show.

In the documents unsealed Thursday, prosecutors from five Wisconsin counties allege an effort by Walker and top aides to circumvent state law and raise money and plan spending by a dozen outside groups during the election.

The prosecutors' filings include a quote from an e-mail in which Walker tells Republican strategist Karl Rove that a top campaign aide, R.J. Johnson, was leading the coordination effort and praises Johnson's work.

"Bottom line: R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin," prosecutors say Walker wrote in the May 4, 2011, e-mail. "We are running nine recall elections and it will be like running nine congressional markets in every market in the state."

Johnson also was a top adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the organizations helping to fight the recall. Prosecutors claimed Johnson used the Club has a hub for coordinating political activities of Walker's campaign and other groups, including the Republican Governors Association and Americans for Prosperity, a national group tied to billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

No charges have been filed against Walker or any of his staffers. The allegation may pose more immediate political than legal problems for the governor, who is up for another term in November and has been considered a possible 2016 presidential contender.

The allegations were made by the county prosecutors as part of their long-running probe into the political activities of Walker's campaign and outside groups during the recall election. Wisconsin Club for Growth sued in federal court to stop the investigation, arguing that it violates its free-speech rights. A federal judge has agreed and twice ordered a stop to the investigation.

A federal appeals court is now reviewing the decision. It unsealed the documents containing the prosecutors' claims.

The allegations are not new, but the records were made public Thursday for the first time.

Walker and his aides downplayed the significance of the prosecutor's allegations and noted that a state judge previously turned down prosecutors' efforts to obtain subpoenas in the criminal probe.

"The judiciary at both the state and federal made it clear they felt there wasn't a case here," Walker told reporters in Milwaukee on Thursday.

Asked whether he sent an e-mail to Rove, touting the coordination, Walker said: "I can't imagine that."

The Democratic National Committee immediately seized on the prosecutor's allegations Thursday, saying they show a "clear violation of the public's trust" by Walker.

Mordecai Lee, a professor of government affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has been following Walker's political career since his days in the Wisconsin assembly, said that he was surprised by the tone of the e-mail prosecutors say Walker wrote to Rove.

During a budget battle in 2011, Walker was the victim of a prank call in which the caller posed as the oil billionaire David Koch. A recording of the call was later leaked and made headlines across the country.

While Walker thought he was having a private conversation with a sympathetic conservative ally, Lee noted that Walker didn't substantively deviate from how he was speaking publicly about his showdown with state employees. In contrast, Lee said the tone of the e-mail to Rove was brash.

"Even though he thought he was talking to a Koch brother, he was very restrained in what he was saying," Lee said. "That's what makes this e-mail so surprising."

Lee said even if no charges emerge against Walker as a result, the revelations in the filing may still cost the governor, who is in a close race for re-election against Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mary Burke.

"I think this is a big deal," Lee said of the allegations. "Not for the 46 or 47% who will vote for him come hell or high water. Nor for the 46 or 47% that will vote against him hell or high water. But for that tiny fraction of the Wisconsin electorate that is authentically undecided, this is something that could throw the election one way or the other."