Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON – Covert videos of Democratic activists released in the run-up to last year’s presidential election showed no violations of Wisconsin laws, a review by the attorney general’s office found.

The blunt conclusion is at odds with how Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel initially reacted to the videos by conservative provocateur James O’Keefe, who has a track record of mischaracterizing his recordings and was found guilty of a misdemeanor in 2010 over one of his operations.

Schimel’s office released a statement in October calling the actions by Democrats on the undercover videos “apparent violations of the law” and saying Schimel was “very concerned” about them.

But one of Schimel’s assistants came to the opposite conclusion when he reviewed the recordings.

“Based on all the available facts I do not believe there is any basis to conclude that the videos demonstrate or suggest violations of Wisconsin criminal laws,” Assistant Attorney General Roy Korte wrote in a Jan. 31 memo ending the investigation.

The memo was released to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week under the state’s open records law.

The findings resulted in Schimel taking flak Tuesday from Democrats, who said he had used his office inappropriately, as well as the conservatives behind the video, who said Schimel hadn't done enough to investigate Democrats.

Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos said the attorney general had handled the investigation appropriately.

"It is not unusual for a prosecutor to receive allegations, investigate the allegations, and then not to bring charges or open a wider investigation," Koremenos said by email.

But Koremenos did not explain why Schimel initially thought the videos showed law violations, given that Korte, the director of Schimel’s criminal litigation unit, ultimately concluded the recordings showed little of substance.

“The conversations remain best described as vague and theoretical in many respects," Korte wrote of the videos. "There are no clear or direct statements indicating that voter fraud (bringing in out of state voters) was planned or had occurred."

Democrats criticized Schimel for his handling of the investigation, contending he put politics ahead of the facts.

"Today's news makes it clear that Attorney General Brad Schimel is either woefully incompetent of the laws he is supposed to enforce or he intentionally used his office for politics," state Democratic Party spokesman Brandon Weathersby said in a written statement.

"Two weeks before the election, Brad Schimel suggested with no investigation that a private citizen broke election laws — and then for three months sat on the evidence showing this was false. This is beyond partisan politics, this is abuse of power by Schimel," Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, said by email.

The videos concentrated on Wisconsin liberal activist Scott Foval, who bragged on tape about disrupting Republican events and discussed busing people into Wisconsin from other states.

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Foval did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday, but in a written statement last fall he said the videos showed only “speculative conversations” and that he was involved in “above-board, legal, legitimate organizing work.”

The recordings were made by O’Keefe and his group Project Veritas Action and released just before November's presidential election.

O’Keefe produced videos of ACORN in 2009 that led to the dismantling of the community organizing group. They also resulted in O’Keefe agreeing to pay a $100,000 legal settlement to a former ACORN employee.

In 2010, O'Keefe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for unlawfully entering federal property when he and people disguised as telephone workers entered the office of then-U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

Regarding the recent Wisconsin videos, Project Veritas spokesman Stephen Gordon said by email that a more robust investigation by Schimel's office was in order. The "decision not to further investigate or prosecute seems to be based on politics," Gordon said in his email.

The group provided Schimel's team with additional recordings, according to Project Veritas and the state Department of Justice.

But those recordings “are suspect” because they begin in the middle of conversations, contain gaps and include inaccurate time counters, Korte wrote. Gordon said Veritas provided all the relevant recordings it had, but that some of them suffered from equipment malfunctions.