“Bottom-line: R.J. helps keep in place a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin. We are running 9 recall elections and it will be like 9 congressional markets in every market in the state (and Twin Cities),” Walker wrote to Rove on May 4, 2011, according to the filing.

Johnson, a Walker campaign consultant, is also a top adviser to Wisconsin Club for Growth, a conservative group that was active in the recall elections. Prosecutors allege Johnson used Club for Growth as the “hub” for coordination between the Walker campaign and conservative groups engaged in issue advocacy.

The documents released Thursday are part of a federal lawsuit brought by Wisconsin Club for Growth and director Eric O’Keefe to end the John Doe investigation, which they say infringes on their First Amendment right to free speech.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa ordered the investigation to stop, writing that O’Keefe and others had found a loophole in Wisconsin campaign finance law and that any law prohibiting their activities would be unconstitutional. But his order is on appeal. A similar lawsuit is pending in state court.

On Thursday, Walker suggested that the documents mean little or nothing, given that his campaign’s position has already prevailed in Randa’s courtroom and in a similar state lawsuit.