John Doe documents released Friday also show a secret $700,000 donation from Gogebic to a pro-Gov. Scott Walker group. Credit: Associated Press

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Documents: John Doe court files released Friday About John Doe Separate but related criminal investigations initiated by Milwaukee County prosecutors have examined events and activities during Scott Walker's time as Milwaukee County executive and as governor. Prosecutors have conducted the probes under the state's "John Doe" statutes that grant extraordinary powers to investigators to compel testimony and maintain secrecy. The first John Doe investigation, begun in 2010, led to convictions of six Walker aides, associates or appointees on charges ranging from theft from a veteran's group to misconduct in office. The second Doe probe, launched in 2012, looked into coordination between conservative political organizations and Walker and other candidates during recall elections. The second probe was halted in May 2014 by a federal judge who agreed that the investigation denied one of the conservative groups' its free-speech rights. No charges have been filed in the second investigation. Walker has denied wrongdoing. See full coverage in John Doe special section

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Gov. Scott Walker prodded outside groups and individuals to funnel millions of dollars into Wisconsin Club for Growth — a pro-Walker group directed by his campaign adviser — during the recall elections in 2011 and 2012, according to court documents unsealed for a short time Friday afternoon.

The documents form much of the basis for prosecutors' theory that Walker's campaign and conservative groups illegally cooperated to help him and other Republicans. Walker and the groups deny they broke any laws, noting two judges have sided with them.

Among the funds that flowed into the Wisconsin Club for Growth was $700,000 from a company trying to build a massive open-pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin. Soon after the 2012 recall and general elections, Walker and Republicans eased environmental regulations, helping the firm.

"The Governor is encouraging all to invest in the Wisconsin Club for Growth," said an April 28, 2011, email from Kate Doner, a Walker campaign consultant, to R.J. Johnson, an adviser to Walker's campaign and the advocacy group. "Wisconsin Club for Growth can accept corporate and personal donations without limitations and no donors disclosure."

In the email, Doner wrote to Johnson that Walker wanted Wisconsin Club for Growth exclusively to coordinate campaign themes. "As the Governor discussed ... he wants all the issue advocacy efforts run thru one group to ensure correct messaging," she wrote.

Walker's campaign has paid Doner's fundraising firm $1.26 million since 2011, including more than $70,000 in his latest spending report.

The hundreds of pages of documents that became available Friday afternoon also showed Walker's team sought to solicit funds for the Wisconsin Club for Growth from an array of nationally known donors to fend off his 2012 recall. Real esate developer Donald Trump, industrialist billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson were all targets.

Mining company Gogebic Taconite LLC's $700,000 contribution to the Wisconsin Club for Growth was not publicly known until Friday.

"Clearly, Club for Growth favors economic growth in Wisconsin and has favored mining, so contributions to organizations that have a shared purpose, a shared interest, that is really all there is to it," Bob Seitz, a spokesman for Gogebic, said Friday.

Seitz said that he did not know the source of the funds. Gogebic is owned by Chris Cline, a billionaire coal mine operator.

David Rivkin, an attorney for Wisconsin Club for Growth director Eric O'Keefe, said Friday that the records provided "no evidence" of wrongdoing by the conservative groups at the center of the John Doe probe.

"At a time when President Barack Obama and his cabinet members are raising funds for Democratic super PACs like Priorities USA, it is not a news story — and certainly not a crime — that Governor Walker would encourage support for groups that support his economic policies," Rivkin said via email.

Rivkin argued the prosecutors' evidence does not show coordinated spending between Walker's campaign and the conservative groups. Furthermore, he said, there is no proof that there was "any attempt to circumvent campaign-finance limits."

The dump of documents is the latest in a string of releases of once-secret records that have come amid Walker's re-election campaign. Walker faces former Trek Bicycle Corp. executive Mary Burke in the Nov. 4 election.

Question of coordination

The documents were made public Friday afternoon by the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals as part of ongoing litigation over a probe into Walker's campaign, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative groups.

Within hours, the documents could no longer be accessed on the court's website. Andrew Grossman, an attorney for the Wisconsin Club for Growth, said the court had briefly made public some records that were not supposed to be unsealed.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm started the probe in 2012. The club sued in federal court in February, arguing it violated the group's free speech rights.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa agreed with the group and halted the probe in May. Prosecutors are asking the appeals court to throw out the federal lawsuit against them and allow the investigation to restart.

Investigators were looking into whether the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative groups illegally coordinated with the campaigns of Walker and candidates for state Senate during the 2011 and 2012 recalls.

An attorney for the special prosecutor leading the probe, Francis Schmitz, has said Walker is not a target of the investigation.

"As previously reported, the prosecutor's attorney stated that Governor Walker is not a target, two separate judges have dismissed the allegations, and the Friends of Scott Walker campaign is not a party to the lawsuit in the 7th Circuit," Walker spokeswoman Alleigh Marré said in a statement Friday.

But the documents released Friday underscore that prosecutors have looked closely at Walker's campaign.

Robert Stelter, an investigator with Milwaukee County district attorney's office, said in documents released Friday that the probe showed the Wisconsin Club for Growth gave donors a way to contribute money anonymously and without limits in support of Walker.

Stelter argued that the coordinated effort between Walker's campaign and Wisconsin Club for Growth represented a violation of Wisconsin election laws, which place strict limits on donations and spending by candidates.

Prosecutors contend candidates and outside groups cannot collaborate on their messaging and strategy. Walker and the club have contended they can, because the club's ads do not explicitly tell people who to vote for or against.

While hundreds of pages were unsealed, many more court documents remain inaccessible to the public. For instance, the documents released Friday refer to a deposition of Walker regarding the conduct of his campaign, but the deposition itself was not among the records that were unsealed.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and four other journalism groups have intervened in the case in an effort to unseal more documents, and two unnamed targets of the probe have asked to prevent more from being made public. The appeals court is to consider their requests during oral arguments Sept. 12.

Brainstorming ideas

The records include example after example of Walker or his aides encouraging donors to give money to the Wisconsin Club for Growth.

In September 2011, Doner sent an email to Walker and others with brainstorming ideas for raising money for the Wisconsin Club for Growth. Among them: "Take Koch's money," "Get on a plane to Vegas and sit down with Sheldon Adelson," and "Go heavy after (corporations) to give."

The documents also show the club received large checks from donors soon after Walker was advised to solicit funds from them for the group. Those included $250,00 from hedge fund CEO Paul Singer, $100,00 from manufacturer Maclean-Fogg Co., $50,000 donation from Atlanticus Holdings CEO David Hanna's trust, $50,000 from hedge fund chairman Bruce Kovner, $50,000 from natural gas and oil producer Devon Energy, $15,000 from Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone and $15,000 from Trump.

The club also received $50,000 from Richard Colburn and $25,000 from Keith Colburn soon after a meeting was slated to be held. Richard Colburn is vice president of Consolidated Electrical Distributors; his son Keith is the company's president.

Stephen Cohen, the founder of SAC Capitol Advisors, gave the Wisconsin Club for Growth $1 million less than a month after Walker was scheduled meet with somone else from the company.

Walker was to participate in a December 2011 conference call arranged by James Buchen, then of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business lobbying group. The club gave $2.5 million to WMC, which in turn ran ads promoting Walker and blasting Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat who ran against Walker in the 2012 recall election.

Gogebic mine plans

The donation from the mining company could open anew a bitter debate between environmentalists and those who say a mine would deliver good-paying jobs to the hard-hit Northwoods.

"Because Wisconsin Club for Growth's fundraising and expenditures were being coordinated with Scott Walker's agents at the time of Gogebic's donation, there is certainly an appearance of corruption in light of the resulting legislation from which it benefited," investigator Dean Nickel said in documents unsealed Friday.

The $1.5 billion mine would plunge as deep as 1,000 feet into hillsides in Ashland and Iron counties. Officials with the company have outlined plans for two pits covering about 4 miles. Gogebic also would operate a processing plant, turning the low-grade ore in taconite pellets for the steel industry.

Gogebic is a subsidiary of privately held Cline Resource and Development, which is headed by Cline, who lives in South Florida. The company owns coal mines in Appalachia and Southern Illinois.

Cline contributed $8,000 to Walker in 2010, campaign finance records show.

Gogebic first announced its plans in November 2010. By mid 2011, the company said that it wouldn't move forward until Wisconsin changed iron mine laws to give more certainty to the regulatory process.

The company had an early hand in writing a mining bill and continued to play a key role throughout the legislative process. The bill, one of GOP's signature pieces of legislation since Walker's election, was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Walker in early 2013.

Although much of the focus has been on the role of Wisconsin regulators, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency will also be reviewing the project.

Bill Glauber, Dave Umhoefer, Dana Ferguson and Thomas Content of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.