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Madison - A secret probe into those around Gov. Scott Walker has continued after the June 5 recall election and expanded beyond Milwaukee County and into state government, new records show.

The documents show that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm's office continues its John Doe investigation into Walker's administration even as the inquiry has gone publicly quiet over the summer.

The records obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel through an open records request show that a Milwaukee County prosecutor sought personnel records from Walker's office and another state agency in June and then met with a top state lawyer the next day.

It was unclear why Chisholm's office was seeking the documents, and there's no indication at all from the records turned over by the Walker administra tion that any crime or impropriety was committed at the state level. Jocelyn Webster, a spokeswoman for Walker's office, said she didn't know why prosecutors wanted them.

"We obviously treat it as any other open records request and try to make sure we are as responsive as we can possibly be," Webster said.

New records

Milwaukee County prosecutors have spent the past 27 months looking into a variety of campaign and other issues from Walker's tenure as Milwaukee County executive.

So far, one former Walker aide from Milwaukee County has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for raising campaign funds in the courthouse. Three other ex-Walker aides and appointees in Milwaukee County have been charged with felonies. All have pleaded not guilty.

But the new records confirm that prosecutors are also seeking information from Walker's state administration and did so as recently as June, after Walker's victory as the first governor in the nation's history to win a recall election.

Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney David Robles on June 18 made an open records request to both Walker's office and the state Department of Administration for all communications "related to the designation and determination of individuals as 'key professional staff' of the Office of the Governor" since the time Walker took office on Jan. 3, 2011. Webster said 22 positions in the governor's office fit this criteria, essentially everyone in the office who is not an intern or clerical staff, such as secretaries.

Robles also asked for records related to assigning Walker aides or transition staff to "executive salary group 3," which is a state personnel grade that is used as a reference to set the maximum salary for some staff in the governor's office. The pay range for this group is between $69,300 and $107,400, and it applies to four full-time positions in the governor's office: deputy chief of staff, director of policy, chief legal counsel and director of communications. A fifth position, chief of staff, is at a higher pay grade for which the top possible pay is $125,300 a year.

The day after the open records request, on June 19, Robles visited the chief legal counsel at the Department of Administration. There were no specific records fitting Robles' request, but on July 26 the DOA attorney sent Robles emails and personnel records from the governor's office roughly matching the request. Robles sought the information using the state's open records law, rather than the subpoena power granted to him as a prosecutor.

No comment

Robles, one of a half-dozen prosecutors handling the John Doe probe, declined to discuss his open records requests to the Walker administration.

"I'm not going to comment on anything," he said.

Robles also wouldn't say why he didn't submit his requests on the Milwaukee County district attorney's office letterhead or provide his job title when seeking the government information. His requests also provide what appears to be a private email account. He did list his official work address and phone number on the letters.

"I'm not going to comment on that," Robles said repeatedly.

The Journal Sentinel recently received copies of the correspondence to and from Robles when the newspaper made its own records request to the Department of Administration and governor's office for any such requests.

Robles underlined one phrase in both requests for records on "email on whatever account or system or any other method of communication on this subject."

In charges filed against former Walker aides in Milwaukee County in January, Milwaukee County prosecutors alleged that the aides had set up a private email network to allow them to communicate with each other about campaign as well as county government work without the public or co-workers' knowledge. That system was not disclosed to the acting director of the county's information management division or the employee in charge of gathering emails to respond to open records requests, the charges allege.

Webster said that at the state level all relevant emails dealing with state business are turned over in response to open records requests whether or not they were sent on a state system.

Daniel Bice and Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this article.