Patrick Marley

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Madison — The John Doe investigation of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's campaign is over.

In a terse order, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm to take up litigation that stopped the probe last year. That ends the long-stalled investigation.

The order was issued less than three weeks after documents were leaked that showed the extent to which the Republican governor and his aides worked closely with the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other supposedly independent groups on recall elections. The documents included details about large donations from those who benefited from laws approved by Walker and GOP lawmakers.

"The United States Supreme Court, the Wisconsin Supreme Court and multiple judges have all reached the same conclusion with every ruling — that this investigation by prosecutors was without merit and thus must be ended," Walker said in a statement. "I applaud the individuals and organizations who fought for and successfully defended their First Amendment rights against political opponents who wanted to silence them."

Chisholm and two other district attorneys involved in the fight issued a statement saying they were proud of their work and disappointed by the decision not to review the case.

"The state Supreme Court decision, left intact by today’s order, prohibits Wisconsin citizens from enacting laws requiring the full disclosure of disguised contributions to a candidate," their statement said. "We look forward to the day when Wisconsin adopts a more enlightened view of the need for transparency in campaign finance."

Left unclear is what will happen to a trove of documents that have been gathered by prosecutors, including a wealth of emails from political activists and prosecutors' interview with Walker in an earlier probe.

Chisholm, a Democrat, launched what became known as John Doe II in 2012 based on information turned up in the earlier investigation of Walker aides and associates that resulted in six convictions, ranging from misconduct in office for campaigning on county time to stealing from a veterans fund. Walker was not charged in either investigation.

The second investigation looked into whether Walker's campaign had illegally worked with the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative groups. Chisholm was assisted by four other district attorneys and special prosecutor Francis Schmitz, who described himself in court documents as a Republican who had voted for Walker.

The investigation was conducted under the state's John Doe law, which at the time allowed prosecutors to order people to give testimony and produce documents and bar them from speaking publicly about the investigation.

Shut down in 2014

The judge overseeing the investigation determined the activity being investigated was legal and effectively halted it in January 2014.

The state Supreme Court agreed last year with that judge and ordered the prosecutors to turn over millions of pages of emails and other documents they had gathered.

Chisholm and two other Democratic district attorneys then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to get involved. They argued state Justices Michael Gableman and David Prosser — who stepped down in July — were wrong to participate in the case because of help they received from the Wisconsin Club for Growth during their campaigns for the court.

The nation's high court declined to take up the case Monday, shutting down Chisholm's last hope for reviving his investigation. The denial was included in a list of hundreds of other cases the court declined to take up without commentary.

Eric O’Keefe, the president of the Wisconsin Club for Growth, issued a statement calling on prosecutors to return material that had been taken, calling the seizure "perhaps the most disturbing legacy of John Doe II.”

The state Supreme Court in July 2015 ordered prosecutors to return all evidence they had gathered to their owners and destroy any copies they'd made of them. It softened that order in December 2015, saying copies should be turned over to the state justices under seal rather than destroyed.

Attorney General Brad Schimel said prosecutors have 30 days to get rid of the evidence they gathered now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take the case.

But this May, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ruled prosecutors could provide his court with sealed copies of the material so they could defend themselves in a lawsuit brought against them by a former top Walker aide caught up in the first investigation. Adelman threw out the lawsuit by Cindy Archer and she is now appealing that decision.

O'Keefe told conservative radio host Vicki McKenna on WISN-AM (1130) that he would ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court to resolve the "open conflict" between its order to turn over all material to the state justices and Adelman's ruling that the same evidence could be provided to the federal court.

Call for Chisholm's ouster

O'Keefe called for taking Chisholm out of office, saying the governor, the Legislature or the courts could do that.

"I really feel a moral obligation to see that John Chisholm is removed from office," O'Keefe said. "John Chisholm needs to go and until John Chisholm goes, this is not over for me."

The public has seen just a fraction of the documents that have been gathered, glimpsing them when they have been filed in court or leaked. Some leaks have been damaging to those targeted by the probe, while others have hurt prosecutors.

Schimel and other Republicans have raised concerns about the most recent leak, but Schimel has not said whether he would conduct an investigation.

In a post on Facebook, Walker campaign adviser R.J. Johnson trumpeted the "end of a 6-year witch hunt" and "taxpayer-financed political vendetta." Johnson, who consulted for the Wisconsin Club for Growth while working for Walker's campaign, wrote that his legal bill topped $1 million.

Johnson blasted Chisholm for seeking "to destroy Governor Walker and the (leaders) of the conservative movement," but also criticized Schimel and J.B. Van Hollen, the Republican attorney general who preceded Schimel. The two "whiffed, passing up every chance to defend our first and fourth amendment rights out of the fear of political fallout," Johnson wrote.

The probe was focused on campaign finance law, but critics have raised other concerns based on facts revealed through leaked documents.

The records show Walker and Republican lawmakers approved legislation helping mining and paint interests around the time the Wisconsin Club for Growth received six-figure donations from a company that wanted to develop an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin and the billionaire owner of a company being sued by those who had been poisoned by lead paint.

Assembly Democrats have asked Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat, to look into such matters. Ozanne, who helped Chisholm with John Doe II,did not return a call Monday.

"There are new crimes that have not been considered by any court that need to be looked at that suggest rampant corruption in our electoral and legislative systems," said a statement from Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison).

In response to the probe, Walker and Republican lawmakers last year changed the John Doe law so that it could not be used to investigate crimes related to politics.

They also dismantled the state Government Accountability Board, a panel of six former judges responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws that had assisted prosecutors with the probe of Walker's campaign. Walker and GOP lawmakers replaced the board with two bipartisan commissions, one responsible for ethics laws and one for election laws.

Other lawsuits connected to the probe are ongoing.

Archer, the former Walker aide, is trying to revive her lawsuit before a federal appeals court, arguing Chisholm conducted a campaign of harassment and intimidation against conservatives.

The MacIver Institute, a free-market think tank, in August filed a class action lawsuit against Chisholm, contending prosecutors illegally seized material without notification.