Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON – A federal judge Wednesday threw out a lawsuit that a conservative group brought against prosecutors over how they conducted their investigation of Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign.

The MacIver Institute alleged in its lawsuit that Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm and others violated a federal law by seizing records without alerting their owners that they had taken them.

But U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled that prosecutors had acted properly because they took the records after getting a warrant. What's more, the prosecutors and investigators are immune from litigation, Conley ruled.

MacIver attorney J. Benton Hurst said the group was disappointed with the ruling and planned to appeal.

The dismissal of the case is the latest legal setback for conservatives who have filed a string of lawsuits over Chisholm’s investigation of Walker’s campaign and groups supporting him.

Chisholm looked into whether Walker’s campaign and those groups illegally collaborated on recall campaigns in 2011 and 2012. The state Supreme Court ended the investigation in 2015, saying nothing illegal occurred.

Even before the state Supreme Court acted, groups caught up in the probe began filing lawsuits because they contended prosecutors and investigators had acted improperly.