Daniel Bice

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Attorney General Brad Schimel really doesn't like criticism.

His agency went after an ex-assistant attorney general last year after he made critical remarks in the Journal Sentinel over a deal the Department of Justice had struck with a polluter.

Schimel's office said it was looking into whether the retiree — Thomas Dawson, long the state's top environmental lawyer — provided confidential information to the press.

Officials said they still considered Dawson a state worker because his unused vacation time was being paid out to him, although he had returned all his state equipment, was no longer working day-to-day at the agency and his resignation letter had been accepted by the Justice Department months earlier.

"I regard what they did as retaliation," Dawson said this week of the previously undisclosed investigation.

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Dawson said he gave no documents, just his on-the-record opinion, when contacted by Journal Sentinel reporter Lee Bergquist in March 2017 — two months after he left his state job. Dawson told Bergquist that he and other lawyers at the Justice Department had recommended a hefty fine against 3M, a proposal that was overridden by higher-ups in the agency.

He said he felt free to offer his opinion on the case because he was no longer at the Justice Department and, more important, he believed the public should know the background on the case, which he said was closed.

As a result of the probe, Dawson hired two top criminal defense attorneys — Hal Harlowe and Dean Strang — to fight the action, and he resolved the matter by taking his vacation pay in a lump sum.

"I was happy to cut my ties with this department and especially Mr. Schimel," said Dawson, who worked for the state for more than 30 years.

But his departure from the state is not listed as retirement in Justice Department records. He said human resources officials had previously agreed in a letter that his retirement day was Jan. 20, 2017.

Instead, one internal record says: "Resignation during an investigation into allegations that he provided information that was confidential and protected by the attorney-client priviledge (sic) and the work-product doctrine, to a member of the public media."

Dawson was not pleased to find this out. He emphasized that he did not resign for this reason.

The information was included in a document provided in an open records request from Schimel's office to a conservative news outlet. The Journal Sentinel turned up the information on the Justice Department's website.

The whole incident, Dawson said, is part of a larger issue at Schimel's agency.

He noted that current Justice Department employees are now required to sign nondisclosure agreements that bar them from revealing any confidential information about their work — not just during their time in office but even after they leave the state.

"There's a lock-down in this department on public information," said Dawson, who was one of 45 former DOJ lawyers who signed a letter opposing Schimel's re-election bid. The Republican AG is opposed by Democrat Josh Kaul.

Schimel spokesman Alec Hanna confirmed that the agency considered Dawson a DOJ employee because his vacation time was still being paid out. Many state employees spread out these payments, Hanna said, because it allows them to continue to receive health insurance through the state.

Hanna said this meant Dawson was still bound by the agency's internal regulations when he talked to the newspaper reporter.

"However, regardless of whether he was retired or not, divulging privileged information is unethical under the attorney ethical rules and DOJ work rules," Hanna said.

In this case, Hanna accused Dawson of providing "confidential information" to the newspaper reporter, though he didn't specify what that was.

Hanna said the agency started its investigation, which he said was led by civil service employees, after the Journal Sentinel published the March 2017 article quoting Dawson.

"Based on what the reporter put in his story, it is clear that Dawson lied to the reporter," Hanna wrote in an email. "Also, discussion of information protected by the attorney client-privilege was a violation of Dawson’s ethical obligations."

Dawson countered: "I stand by what I told Lee and what was reported… No finding was made that I divulged confidential information that was privileged and I was not disciplined."

This isn't the first time Dawson and Schimel have clashed.

In August 2016, Schimel demoted Dawson as head of the agency's environmental protection unit — a job he had held for 13 years. He became an assistant attorney general within that unit.

Dawson had previously served for 19 years as an intervenor for environmental protection for the state.

In the 3M case, the firm was able to escape a fine by agreeing to make $665,000 in improvements at two facilities in Wausau for air pollution violations in 2014 and 2015, according to court records.

The Minnesota-based company employs hundreds of workers at plants in Wausau, Menomonie, Cumberland and Prairie du Chien.

Dawson was quoted calling the settlement "unprecedented," a point he reiterated this week.

He also said he had no problem letting people know that the final settlement was reached over the objections of staff lawyers. He noted that a final judgment had been entered in the case.

"I had no problem talking to (Bergquist)," Dawson said. "The public has a right to know."

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.