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A plea agreement has been reached in the felony embezzlement case against Timothy D. Russell, a former aide to Gov. Scott Walker.

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf said Monday a hearing on the plea deal is set for Thursday but declined to discuss terms of the deal. Russell's lawyer, Parker Mathers, didn't immediately return a phone call late Monday.

Russell, 49, was charged in January with embezzling more than $20,000 from a veterans group through a nonprofit organization that Walker assigned him to lead. He's accused of siphoning money raised for Operation Freedom, an annual veterans fair and picnic at the zoo hosted by Walker during his time as Milwaukee County executive.

Russell served as deputy chief of staff and housing director at the county during the period he's accused of plundering the veterans money.

Russell transferred money from the nonprofit, the Heritage Guard Preservation Society, to his personal accounts and used it for Caribbean and Hawaiian vacations, according to a criminal complaint. He's also charged with stealing money from campaign accounts of two Milwaukee County Board candidates.

Russell also has been named as having set up a secret computer system in the county executive's office that prosecutors say was used for communication between Walker's county staff and staff for his successful 2010 campaign for governor. He has not been charged in connection with that, however.

He faced more than 14 years in jail and fines of up to $45,000 on two felony counts and one misdemeanor.

Kelly Rindfleisch, another former Walker aide, pleaded guilty last week to using that secret system to raise money for Brett Davis, a former Republican legislator and unsuccessful GOP candidate for lieutenant governor. She succeeded Russell as Walker's deputy chief of staff at the county.

Rindfleisch had been charged with four felony counts of misconduct in office but cut a plea deal in which she admitted to one count.

Charges against Russell and Rindfleisch grew from a long-running John Doe investigation into aides and associates of Walker. The governor repeated Monday that he was "absolutely confident" he was not a target of that investigation.

Emails Landgraf released last week during Rindfleisch's plea hearing showed that Walker's campaign staff advised his county staff on how to respond to issues that arose in 2010, including reports of patient sexual assaults at the county's Mental Health Complex and the death of a 15-year-old boy when a concrete slab fell from the O'Donnell Park garage.

Walker said Monday that morning phone meetings between his county and campaign staff were routine and didn't violate any laws.

"There was discussion about schedules, about staffing, about things as simple as the media - like all of you here today - asking questions," Walker said at a news conference. Those conversations "sometimes that related to official policy, sometimes about things in regard to campaign-related policy, trying to sort out who was doing what," Walker said. "That was the primary purpose of those morning calls. And that's perfectly legitimate and legal and ethical in every way."

Journal Sentinel reporter Patrick Marley in Madison contributed to this report.